


"Oh Gods I Wish I Had The Skill"

by Gabrieldiedforoursins, Musical_Naoko



Series: Children of the Gods [1]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Demigod AU, Percy Jackson and the Olympians AU, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Universe, Son of Aphrodite!Jeremy Heere, Son of Apollo!Michael Mell, Squip is Cupid's Evil twin, hanahaki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2018-12-24 05:17:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12005847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabrieldiedforoursins/pseuds/Gabrieldiedforoursins, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musical_Naoko/pseuds/Musical_Naoko
Summary: The Squip Gang's Godly parents:Son of Ares! Rich GoranskiSon of Apollo! Jake DillingerDaughter of Hermes! Jenna RolanDaughter of Aphrodite! Chloe ValentineDaughter of Dionysus! Christine CanigulaDaughter of Demeter! Brooke Lohst





	1. Cause Freaking Out Is My OK

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Squip Gang's Godly parents:  
> Son of Ares! Rich Goranski  
> Son of Apollo! Jake Dillinger  
> Daughter of Hermes! Jenna Rolan  
> Daughter of Aphrodite! Chloe Valentine  
> Daughter of Dionysus! Christine Canigula  
> Daughter of Demeter! Brooke Lohst

Jeremy let out a grunt as he swung his naginata, swirling it violently he decapitated two of the training dummies with a single movement and a scowl. His face hurt, his cheek and bottom lip were split open and bleeding while his left eye was swollen shut already. Another quick movement and he had gutted two of the three dummies he had been aiming for. In a fit of anger he flung his hand out, turning the bracelet into a knife and sending it sailing into the dummy that he had missed with a quiet shriek of rage.

Knowing Jeremy for as long as he had, Michael knew that the kid would be working himself to the bone in the practice arena.  He’d missed dinner, and Michael was going to drag him to his cabin or something, to make sure the other teen ate. Seeing the boy completely decimating the practice dummies, Michael let out a low whistle. “Jeezus. Who pissed in your cornflakes, Jer-bear?” He continued walking, considering helping him set the dummies back up.

Hearing his best friend’s comment, Jeremy whirled around to glare at Michael, feeling pissy and waving his pole arm around, ”Who do you think Michael?! _Rich_ it's always _Rich_!! What did I ever do to him besides being pan?! He takes my sexuality and my cabin number and my willingness to fight as a direct _fucking_ threat!” Jeremy turned his head to the side and spit out some more blood, wiping at his chin and flinching when he hit a bruise.

Michael froze when he saw the blood and the bruises, before walking forward. “ _Fuck_ , Jer…” Yeah, no. He wasn’t about to let Jeremy anywhere near the training dummies again for a while. “Put the weapons back for a bit, would ya? And c’mere.” He slid his bag off his back, and rooted in it til he found his first aid kid he’d taken to carrying a round. Salve, nectar, ambrosia, bandages. He liked to be prepared. Especially since Jeremy tended to get into fights, a lot. For a son of Aphrodite, his fights seemed on par with Ares.

Jeremy shrunk his polearm back down to earring size and waited for his knife to return to him, walking over to Michael he crossed his arms and scowled. “It’s not like I was going to take a stab at _you_ Michael, although I would be more than happy to gut Rich if he comes within 20 feet of me for the next few hours, my sisters are going to wage a war on the Ares cabin if I come back with my face jacked up again...”  Jeremy took the last couple of steps over to Michael and turned his face up so  the older boy could inspect the damage.

He lightly touched Jeremy’s face, turning his head slowly so he could see what all needed attention first. Michael put some of the salve under Jeremy’s eye, some on his split lip, and lightly massaged at the bruises that were starting to form. Disrupting the clotting blood helped it to not get so dark. He also handed Jeremy the food and drink, nodding his own head. “I know you wouldn’t, but your giant stick doesn’t exactly help me patch you up before you head back. Besides. Isn’t that what nurses do? Keep the patients away from sharp shit til they’re healed?” Michael felt a bit like a nurse for Jeremy, always seeming to have to patch him up. But he’d been doing this for the younger boy since the moment he stepped into camp.

Jeremy took the ambrosia and nectar with a pained but grateful smile, taking a sip, he let the drink coat the wounds inside his to close them up before he took another longer sip and bit into the yellow square. It was a relief to have Michael there now, his shot nerves were soothing and he didn’t feel the need to gut everything in sight, now that his face was healing. It also helped that the older boy was nursing him and his injuries so he wouldn’t have to go back to his sisters looking like his face had been slammed into a wall, which it had but they didn’t need to know that. “Sorry I get into so many fights Michael, I just, wanna be strong,” he left the ‘like you’ unspoken, it was a thing between them, Jeremy had tagged after the older boy right after his entry into camp life. Seeing as Michael had killed a hellhound that had been about to kill him, Jeremy thought that the slight hero worship had been justified when they were younger.

“Well, the gods are all back-asswards anyway. We have technology and all this other stuff now, to the point humans don’t evolve anymore! And we don’t have to be strong to survive, we can just be us.” He wrapped a few of the injuries not on Jeremy’s face with gauze, and then pushed him to go sit on one of the benches, pulling actual food out of his bag, ie, a bottle of mountain dew and a couple packages of poptarts. Michael remembered when he first came to camp, not knowing exactly what the camp was, and referred to the duo as the meal of the gods. He’d gotten some weird looks, and a few scandalized gasps.

Jeremy let out a little laugh and pushed Michael away playfully, “that might apply to _humans_ Michael, but we’re _demigods_ , so we have to be stronger and faster than the monsters. Thankfully that can be achieved through training our butts off.” Jeremy smiled as the injuries that couldn’t be healed so quickly were wrapped up and he slumped onto the bench rubbing his cheeks with a pained sigh. “Sorry, did I forget dinner again?”

He nodded. “Yeah, you forgot. Like usual.” Michael let out a sad laugh. “Luckily you’ve got me, huh, kid? Here to provide you with the _real_ food of the gods.” He leaned back some, looking at Jeremy out of the corner of his eye. He’d known this kid since they were tiny. Well. Kind of. Jeremy was eight, and Michael was eleven, but it was still bordering on forever. He’d been patching Jeremy up since forever too. Not always from getting bullied by Rich though.

Jeremy let out a little laugh and accepted the food, he tore through the packet of poptarts quickly, not having realized how hungry he was until after his face had stopped throbbing. Once he was done with the food he shifted himself so that he was looking more at Michael, as he sipped at the mountain dew. “If I’m late to dinner again tomorrow you should probably come looking for me… Even if I enjoy it being just us sitting here and hanging out I can’t survive on poptarts and mountain dew alone, even if they are food of the gods” Jeremy let out a little chuckle and nudged Michael with the toe of his shoe playfully.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll come find you. Or I’ll see if I can start holding stuff back too.” Michael worried about Jeremy. The boy was thin as it was, and all the practicing he was doing wasn’t going to do him much good if he didn’t have the sugars to turn into muscle anyways. “We should probably head back to the cabins soon though. It’s getting late, and Mr.D has been pissy lately. It’s because of my charming good looks and radiant personality I was even allowed to come out here and get you.” Michael snorted, before loading his bag back up, but passing Jeremy a bottle of the extra strength Tylenol.

Jeremy let out an ugly laugh as Michael mocked Mr. D, “I’m also sure that it had something to do with the fact that my mother would throw a _fit_ if Mr. D allowed one of her babies to be eaten by the harpies. But it helps that you’re the camp’s golden boy.” Jeremy didn’t bother to mention that Michael was _his_ golden boy as well, he could handle his stupid crush on his best friend, it was probably his Aphrodite kicking in and _wanting_ to be in love (he _knew_ he was dismissing his own feeling and blaming it on his Mother but damnit how could he admit to himself that he was in love with Michael?). Jeremy stood up and stretched. His joints popping after the too vigorous session of thrashing the dummies.

Michael snorted. “I’m only the golden boy because my moms buy everyone off with food. Granted, I also buy people off with food now, but still. In normal school, I’m a loser with gay moms.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Now, come on. I can either bribe you with apocalypse of the damned? Or do you have to go back to your cabin tonight?” He cared about the other kid, and he knew that he was going to be choking on flowers soon enough. But hey, being a child of Apollo had its advantages, he could heal himself up so he wasn’t suffering too badly from the flowers. At most it was just an unsettling silky feeling of the petals.  
  
“Your moms are the best Michael, and if any stupid mortal said otherwise, the entire camp would be coming down on them, we _love_ your moms. Also, you take the time to train the new campers and you’ve been here forever! You practically run the camp from the camper’s view of things!” Jeremy bit down on his bottom lip, the fluttery feeling in his chest made him smile as he shook his head. “Any other time I would be more than happy to crash with you Michael, you know that, but I promised to get the little ones up in the morning. I had been planning on training all night, but you’ve pulled me away from my mad slaughtering of the dummies. I’ll make sure to get into bed though.” He reached over and laid a hand on Michael’s shoulder in reassurance.

“Good. You need to take care of yourself better.” Michael gave him a lopsided smile. “There’s a game of capture the flag coming up, so you’ll need your strength.” Not to mention he hated seeing his friend wear himself down like this. “I’ve been trying to see if we can be on the same team. Otherwise I’m afraid I’d kick your butt.” He gave a good-natured jab, smiling at Jeremy. “Anyways. Get some sleep. You still have normal during the day training stuff too.” He patted Jeremy’s shoulder before waving. “I’ll see you tomorrow though! Night, Jer-bear!” Michael smiled before jogging off towards the Apollo cabin, and crashing heavily into his bunk.

“As if you could!” Jeremy stood there for a few minutes after Michael jogged off, his face falling into a soft frown. Coughing softly, he turned back to the training dummies, intending to clean up after himself despite the chewing out he would get from Michael for not heading to bed like he had promised. The problem was that Jeremy _knew_ he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he’d spend the night on the roof of his cabin staring at the stars and wishing he hadn’t made the promise to go to bed. Michael was huge on promises, if you made a promise and then broke it you were a liar and seeing as Apollo was also the god of truth, the _insistence_ made sense.

Michael knew, even though Jeremy said he was going to get rest, that it wasn’t likely. But there wasn’t anything he could do. He supposed he could ask the sleepers if they could help Jeremy out, but even they weren’t likely to do much. So he tossed and turned in his own bunk, uncertain of what he could do to help the other boy. He coughed up a few rose petals, and rolled his eyes, shoving them in a shoebox under his bed. So much for being immune to illnesses, right? When you manage to contract the single one that you aren’t immune to. He was agitated by it, and, despite being best friends with Jeremy, he sent silent angry prayers to Aphrodite, frustrated at this being one of the things that they created.

Jeremy had spent the next hour cleaning up after himself; dragging the dummies back to his cabin he sat in the corner and stitched them back up before taking them back out to the training field and setting them back up. He sighed happily feeling satisfied with his work he headed back to his bunk to grab his blanket and pillow so that he could climb up and camp out of the roof of his cabin, Michael would find him in the morning, he yawned loudly and felt another cough bubble up in his chest before he suppressed it, maybe he was getting sick? He rolled over onto his side and fell asleep, the sounds of the night lulling him into Morpheus’s realm.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning brought Michael rising early. Usually he slept in, people not wanting to mess with him because of the one time he was woken up. He had drawn the pin out of the sundial patterned watch he wore, and brandished a dagger, threatening to stab the owner of the hand that was on him. When he woke up fully, he apologized profusely. He wasn’t really a violent person. He just did not like being woken up. When he did wake early on his own, it was generally something to do with Jeremy. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up, groaning as he saw a couple red petals on his pillow case. Shoving them away, he got dressed, walking sleepily towards the Aphrodite cabin. “I swear to dad, Jeremy. If you’re doing something weird…” He groaned as he got closer, and saw the mound of blanket on the roof. “Well. Fuck.”

Jeremy was out like a light, still in the clothes he had been training in last night as he let out soft kitten snores. He pulled his pillow a bit for firmly under him, completely ignorant of his sisters standing around the cabin murmuring that “he was on the roof again” and “someone should grab Michael?” the last time he had fallen asleep on the roof and one of his sisters tried to carry him down he had woken up with a start and _fallen_ _off_ the roof and onto his arm. Letting out a loud whine, he stretched and slumped back into the pillow, pulling his blanket more firmly around him as he snuffled.

Michael knew the drill, and he sighed, getting to the roof, and nudging the sleeping beauty on top. “Jer. Come on. Time to get up.” When Jeremy just whined and snuggled deeper into his blanket, Michael huffed and sat down next to him, poking various sections of the blanket lump that was the Aphrodite boy. “Jeremy. Miah. Come onnnnn…” He shook him a little. “I’ll push you off the roof.” He’d be the one to heal him after, but he’d do it.

Jeremy reached out from under the blanket and dragged Michael down with him, half onto the bundle of blankets, only pulling the pillow off his face when he heard the mild threat. He looked at the older boy with an exhausted expression, deep bags under his eyes. He had spent the night dreaming of vined sunflowers overrunning and strangling a bush of roses and the dream _seemed_ like a warning. “Gimme like, another half hour, kay?” his face was still sore from the healing last night and he didn’t feel like taking more damage to his person at the moment.

Michael nodded, flopping more firmly on the pillow next to Jeremy. “Fine. But only because you look like ass. And I expect a debriefing when we wake up again.” There was no way in hell he was gonna let Jeremy sleep in extra if he couldn’t. He waved the okay to the other campers by the cabin, before nudging Jeremy a little to grab some of the blanket. As they got settled, he felt the prick of a thorn at the back of his throat, causing him to have to turn his head and cough, but he’d deal with the little bit of damage at breakfast, requesting some ambrosia with his food, discretely.

“Demigod dream…” He mumbled the ominous sounding words, his lips twisting into a scowl as he continued to think about it, “It was a warning, but I have no idea what it was for....” Jeremy was more than happy to budge over and share his large blanket with Michael as he cuddled back into his pillow and into Michael’s chest as he curled up into a ball. Jeremy idly patted Michael’s back as he coughed, mumbling that “if you as an _Apollo_ kid are getting sick then I’m doomed to die of the cough I’m developing.”

“Nah, you’ll be fine. I’m not getting sick.” _I’ve been sick for a few months now_. “I think I swallowed a bug or something while getting up here.” He laughed, sliding an arm around Jeremy as the younger boy cuddled into him. Did this add to the fact Rich bullied them about being gay? Yep. But did Michael care? That was a hard no. This kid deserved comfort and good things, he hadn’t seen much of it. Besides. They weren’t dating, and they knew that, and that was enough.

“Hah, you need to learn how to keep your mouth closed when you climb.” After a few moments of giggling and light coughing. Jeremy mumbled a sleepy thanks, before covering his mouth and letting out a wet, painful sounding, cough. A look of surprise flitted across his face at the sudden intensity of pain in his chest. Nothing had come up but it had _hurt,_ _dammit!_ He pressed his face into Michael’s chest and slipped back into an exhausted sleep, his face lined with both pain and the worry of the dreams coming back.

Michael tried to sleep, but it seemed like coughs were hitting Jeremy even while he was knocked out, and the other boy took to rubbing his back, and frowning. It sounded serious, whatever it was that Jeremy had. He leaned over and rested the back of his head against Jeremy’s forehead, but found no fever. It was still concerning though, and when Michael did fall asleep, it was full of anxiety dreams for the other boy.

At some point, after Michael had fallen back to sleep, Jeremy had rolled over in his sleep, coughing out his first yellow petals that were quickly swept away by the light breeze. The field of roses returned to his dreaming mind and the sunflowers were back looking gorgeous and golden as they strangled the life out of the smaller red roses. A cold mocking voice greeted him as he reached to pet the sunflowers, _“You’re going to let this destroy you child.”_ The voice echoed in his head and sent him bolting upright fully awake and drenched in a cold sweat.

Michael felt Jeremy jolt, and he let out a panicked little cough, arm flinging out across Jeremy’s chest as he sat up. “Holy fuck! Are you okay?” He looked at him, eyes wide, and worried about the other. He choked down what he could feel as his rose petals, and pulled Jeremy into a hug. “Come on, let's get off the roof before one of us gets hurt,” He stood, offering a hand to Jeremy. “And then we go talk to Chiron. How long have these dreams been happening?”

Jeremy’s hand had tangled into his hair as he panicked himself awake, the firm arm of the older boy was a relief cause it gave him something to cling to has he forced himself to calm down, and turned to Michael eyes tearing up and his voice wobbling in his panic as he tried to figure out the dream, “Mica, what would I _let_ destroy me?” He took the hand and stood up after he had kicked his pillow and bundle of blankets off the roof and onto the porch of the cabin.

“I don’t know...” Michael looked at him, brows creased with worry. “Is that what you were dreaming about? Something destroying you?” He worked his way down the roof, offering a hand back to help Jeremy, since he was wobbly and practically in tears. “What were you dreaming about?”

Jeremy scaled down the lattice, after Michael and took his hand as he jumped down the last foot or so. He was still wobbly and the tears were welled up in his eyes as he looked down at his bare feet “I, _he_ said ‘ _You’re going to_ let _this destroy you child’_ and then he  laughed at me.” he bent down to scoop up his bedding and looked back up at the taller boy, his eyes distant as he remembered the gorgeous red and greens of the field. “I was in the most beautiful field of roses, but there was a figure I think… I can’t remember all of it. I’ve been having dreams of the field for weeks, but that was the first time I heard someone else.” Jeremy bit down on his bottom lip as he wobbled into the cabin, leaving the door open so that Michael could follow him in.

Michael frowned, but followed Jeremy inside. Hearing voices wasn’t good, and recurring dreams weren’t good for demigods.  He frowned a little harder when he heard about the roses. He’d been coughing those up. He wondered if the dreams and his flowers were connected at all. He made it inside, and then helped Jeremy get his things back on his bed, and then sat on the bunk with him, hugging the boy tight. “Jer... I really think we need to go to Chiron with this…” Michael was worried, and he figured the centaur might know more about what was going on than the two teenagers did.

Jeremy looked down into his lap as Michael wrapped his arms around him, twisting his hands together as he bit down on his bottom lip, thinking hard about it. “I felt like I was being mocked, but before tonight, the field had never been a bad thing, it felt like it was a part of me…” Pressing his hand to his heart, he turned to Michael trying to explain with his expressions just how calm the field of thorn-less vines _used_ to be. “There’s more, but I wanna talk to Chiron about it before I make any assumptions, but Mica, the voice sounded _godly_.” he whispered the last word, as if terrified that the male in his dream would hear him.

“Yep. Okay. We can cuddle more later, I promise. But right now we need to get you to Mr. D and Chiron. C’mon, flower boy.” Michael was trying to lighten the situation with humor, but it all seemed to be falling flat. He was too worried, to unsure as to what this all meant. Michael was hacking up flowers, and Jeremy was having dreams about a shitty person telling him he was going to be destroyed. And Michael, being the very great best friend he was, wasn’t going to let this happen to Jeremy alone.

Michael’s attempts at humor made him smile and relax for a few minutes. But then he sighed and nodded, trying to hide the fact that if he inhaled deeply enough that he could hear his breathing rattle in his lungs. He took the older boy’s hand and stumbled after Michael face lined with exhaustion as they headed over to the Big House to flag down both of the heads of camp. Jeremy decided that he would let Michael do most of the talking, he was too tired right the moment to even try and lay everything out.

When they got to the house, they were met with a grouchy looking god. “And who do I have the displeasure of meeting with today, and why do I care?” Michael rolled his eyes, very much so not in the mood to deal with the crab ass that was the head of camp. “Jeremy and I need to speak to Chiron. Urgently.” The boy looked back at his friend, noting the look of ‘not well’ that was coloring his whole face and body language. He looked back to Mr. D, and squared his shoulders. “Now can we go talk to him, or can you get him for us?” “Is that any way to speak to a god, Michael? Jerry?” “His name is Jeremy-” Michael got cut off by Mr. D groaning and rolling his eyes. “Fine, fine! I’ll go get the pony. But next time, wait to have problems til after noon, not at 9 am.”

“Forgive me, Mr. D, I wasn’t expecting to be _having_ a problem otherwise I wouldn’t have inconvenienced you so early in the morning.” Jeremy was nothing if not polite to the annoyed god, it was a habit from his early days at camp, he had been terrified that he would be thrown out and left to the hellhounds. Jeremy tucked his chin into his chest and mumbled “It’s just, the dreams… That voice… I can’t figure it out.” Jeremy looked up at the god with imploring eyes, before looking back at Michael with a weak smile. “I’ll be fine, it’s just, making me a bit twitchy and I don’t want to charmspeak by accident if I snap at one of the younger campers. _That’s_ one of the reasons I need to speak with Chiron. Will the continued dreams affect my abilities?”

Dionysus sighed, he could tell that this wasn’t as simple as ‘tell the peter johnson kid to go back to his cabin’. And if he was hearing voices in a recurring dream, then, it was something he needed to go grab Chiron for. The two had felt like there was something in the air for a while now, and the gods were uncommonly silent about the entire thing. So something big must have been happening.  
              Michael grumbled as Mr.D took his sweet time going into the house, leaving Jeremy and himself to wait on the porch. At least Chiron would be more understanding, even if he was a little frustrated as well.

Jeremy tightened his grip on Michael’s hand and made a hushing noise in the back of his throat as he caught the look of frustration on the older boy’s face. “Relax Mica, I’ll be perfectly fine, it’s just a dream…” he trailed off at the look he was given and smiled a bit awkwardly, no he was lying and he knew it, it was a _demigod dream_ which made it about a million percent more important than any normal dream he could have had. As they waited, Jeremy ran his free hand over Michael’s arm, doing his best to soothe both of their jagged nerves.

Chiron made his entrance, looking at the two boys and taking in the fact that Jeremy looked like he was going to drop, and Michael looked like he could have belonged in the Ares cabin, what with the look of protective anger on his face. “Mr. Mell, Mr. Heere, to what do I owe the visit?” He was in his chair, and wheeled closer, pointedly ignoring the disgruntled god next to him. “Jeremy’s been having dreams, sir. As in demigod dreams.” Michael looked nervous, but determined. “And, what, Jeremy, have those dreams been?”

Jeremy damn near stood at attention when Chiron turned his gaze from Michael to him. “Sir, at first it was just a field of thornless roses, as far as the eye could see it was calm, peace even! There wasn't anything _bad_ about it up until last night…” he took a breath and looked down as his feet as he tried to wrap his head around what the man had said, “last night there was a figure, I couldn't make anything out, but he was laughing at me and he said, _‘you're going to let this destroy you child’_. I bolted awake before I heard anything else.”

“Was there anything else in this dream? Anything you noticed can help.” Michael ran his hand up and down Jeremy’s back, trying to comfort the other boy while Chiron spoke. Michael kept his thoughts on the roses to himself.  Jeremy’s were thornless, where as his would claw at his throat if he let them get that far up.

Jeremy squirmed under Chiron’s gaze and nodded, “there was, but I don't know if _that's_ what _he_ was talking about!” The words were coming too fast as they burbled out of his throat, and his face was a mess of panic and welled up tears. Then he turned back to Michael suddenly aware of the look of panic on Michael's face as well as the tightening grip around his hand. “Mica, gimme 5 minutes with Chiron, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything. But if he wants all the details, I should probably explain everything I can remember from that weird dream.” He took a step closer to the older boy and wrapped a hug around the arm that had the death grip on his hand. “Everything will be ok, I promise, and you know I'd _never_ break a promise.”

Michael nodded, even if he was reluctant to leave, and he went some ways away, messing with some plants near the far corner of the house. He worried about Jeremy, and he could see the panic attack already rising on the younger boy’s body language. He huffed, but gave the two their space. Chiron watched the interaction closely, and he started building his own suspicions, though he probably shouldn’t have. A confirmation bias wouldn’t do any of them any good, especially on the topics of dreams. Once Michael was away though, he turned to Jeremy. “Deep breaths, Jeremy. It’s alright. You can speak freely.” He reached out a hand to pat Jeremy’s shoulder, helping him towards one of the deck chairs, much to Mr. D’s disdain. ( _That was His favorite chair, what in hades name, Chiron?!)_

Jeremy inhaled deeply then exhaled, looking down at his hands as he twisted them in his grip, tugging and pulling on them until his knuckles popped. “There was a huge vined sunflower plant the last couple of times, just growing in the field, but when I fell asleep last night it was strangling the life out of the rose bushes. I woke up to Michael trying to get me off the roof but I begged for another 30 minutes and when I fell back asleep. The plant was even bigger, I moved to untangle them, and I was petting the sunflower when I heard the laughing and the man call me out. Chiron, I have no idea what’s happening!” Jeremy sat down heavily and pressed his face into his hands rubbed at his sore and injured face. “No one had ever been there with me, it was _my_ field of roses and I’m freaking out. I feel like someone’s ripped me open and looked at my deepest secrets.”

“Did you recognize the figure at all? Or the voice?” Chiron was worried. And he wasn’t sure how to help Jeremy. The field of flowers getting choked out seemed like an indicator of something that Jeremy was nurturing, that was going to end up killing him He expressed that thought though. “Have you been indulging in any bad habits recently? Smoking, self-harm, drinking?” It wasn’t impossible for those things to happen while at the camp, even as monitored as everything was.

Jeremy barked out a surprised laugh, his face lighting up as he devolved into giggles, “my mother would strike me dead if I did anything that could potentially put myself or my ‘beauty’” Jeremy used air quotes here, “in peril, so definitely no smoking for the kid with the singing voice. And why would I want to _drink_ it makes people do stupid things…” he trailed off as he caught sight of the training field and the dummies that he had put back together after eviscerating them last night. “I can't think of any bad habits I've been nurturing Chiron.” That was a blatant lie and he knew it was risky to even think of lying to the ancient centaur. But he didn't feel like trying to justify over training. His voice took on an airy and distant tinge not unlike Aphrodite’s did when she was thinking about love, “That sunflower was so beautiful though, perfect and golden. I wanted to protect it and let it grow…”

Chiron froze, and then nodded. “Jeremy... I think I know what’s going on, but I’m not certain. I need to call Michael over and speak to him for a moment.” He waved to the other boy, who hurried over, the concern obvious on his face.  “I know that sometimes the person affected doesn’t always give all of the information. So I’m going to talk to him.” Michael tilted his head, and then gave Jeremy a hug before walking off with Chiron. “So, what’s going on with him? Will he be okay?”

Chiron shook his head slowly as he thought, moving them farther away from a confused Jeremy. “The boy was given a very clear warning. So I have to ask you, has Jeremy admitted anything to you. _Anything at all_ Michael I need to know.” The aged centaur had a stern look on his face as he pinned Michael with a look that said, ‘tell me everything’. “You are after all the closest to him,” the centaur had a small moment of understanding and turned to look at the Aphrodite boy with something between a look of understanding and pity. ’poor boy, he hasn't even realized it yet.’

“He said he was getting a cough. And he’s been training himself into exhaustion every night. Not to mention Goranski keeps trying to beat the shit out of him.” Michael huffed. “Sorry for the language.” He rubbed his own arm though. “I uh. He said that the voice in his dream sounded godly. And I worry about that. I know that gods can do that, or visit in dreams. But this doesn’t seem like a good thing... And...” He looked a little afraid. “And this stays between us! But. I’ve been coughing petals. Rose petals. And an occasional thorn. You _can’t tell_ the camp, or Jeremy. I’m handling it. I’m Apollo’s kid. I heal quick.”

“Jeremy did not tell me that Rich has been hitting him, nor did he tell me that he has been training himself into the ground. Although I will admit to having already known about the training, and while it's admirable to a point, it's worrying that he feels the need to work himself til he put himself in tears.” Chiron’s lips thinned at the babbling but the coughing matched his growing suspicions, “it's not my place to tell anyone, you're a capable healer and fighter and are more than able to take care for yourself so I won't tell a soul, but make sure you don't over heal yourself try to let some of it heal on its own, or risk internal scarring. Now come Mr. D looks like he's about terrorize Mr. Heere for my placing him in a chair.”

“What… What are the flowers, Chiron?” He walked along side the head of camp, fiddling with his hands. “Am I going to be alright? Is Jeremy? I just want to make sure he’s okay..” Michael’s voice took an edge of worry, and a similar fondness to how Jeremy spoke about the sunflowers. “I’ve been making sure to take him some food when he misses dinner, and I try to get him to bed at a decent time, but he’s not good at taking care of himself.” 

Chiron made a humming noise and rested his hand atop Michael’s head, smoothing out the boy’s curls in a soothing and fatherly gesture. “Thousands of years ago, three of the big twelve came together and concocted an illness, it was only supposed to a hypothetical, but their planning brought it to life and sowed seeds into the lungs of those with godly blood. The Japanese had the best name for it so the entire mortal world knows it as ‘Hanahaki’. Apparently seeds take root when someone falls in love and the flowers bloom and take if the love is unrequited or if the person with the flowers _thinks_ their love isn’t returned.” Chiron made sure to emphasize the sentence so that Michael would start asking question.  
              The old centaur smiled at the look of ‘ _what are you trying to tell me_?’ on the  “The reason I say think, is because I watched two of my students, about a thousand years ago get into misunderstanding and wouldn’t admit who their flowers were for, they were madly in love with each other, but thinking that the other was in love with someone else, they set aside their feelings and died, one after the other, for the sake of not losing their love and memories of each other.”


	3. Chapter 3

Michael frowned. “I don't get the point in you telling me that, other than the fact I have feelings for someone who doesn't have them back. I don't see...well… my crush, coughing up flowers. It's just me. So it can't be requited.” He clammed up though when they got closer to Jeremy, not needing him to overhear this and get worried. “So everything is going to be fine, right?” He said once they got into earshot, trying, at the very least, to keep Jeremy alright and calm, even if Michael was freaking out.

Chiron stopped them before they reached Jeremy’s earshot and turned to son of Apollo towards him, “My point, Mr. Mell, is if you _haven’t told_ the object of your affections you’re in love with them, this could very well destroy you from the inside out. They might not even know they’re in love with you yet, love after all, is a tricky thing.”  
              As the two reached Jeremy, they found him huddled up in the chair, coughing into his hand with an annoyed expression plastered on his exhausted face, even Dionysius looked a bit concerned and as the wine god walked over to them mumbled, “He’s been coughing almost nonstop since you two walked away.” into Chiron’s ear as he headed into the big house, allowing the centaur to handle the situation.

Hurrying over to Jeremy’s side, after shooting an exasperated glare at Chiron, Michael patted Jeremy’s back before pulling out a bottle of nectar from his bag and handing it to the other boy. “Jesus, Jer. Maybe you will die from a cold.” He tried to laugh it off, but it didn’t seem to work so well, his worry overriding his own sense of self preservation and his sense of humor. “Here, drink.” He looked at Chiron with a desperate glance, not liking where this was going.

Voice hoarse from coughing he mumbled an amused, “That would be my luck, wouldn’t it?” Jeremy let out a little chuckle at Michael’s panic and reached to grab the offered bottle, but before he could take a sip of the nectar he turned green and bolted for the bathroom in the big house thankfully he was one of the fastest runners minus the Hermes kids and so he made it to the bathroom in time. Slamming the door behind him he heard the lock click and he retched into the toilet, spilling stomach acid and, golden-yellow flower petals? “What the fuck?!” There was quickly another round of vomiting due to the nausea from the first round had him whimpering in pain. Jeremy _hated_ throwing up. Thankfully this time it was only stomach acid, but the bowl of the toilet was full of those gorgeous golden petals, and he stared, confused by them.

Michael looked more panicked than before, and ran to the door, knocking on it. “Jer? Jeremy are you okay?” He looked at Chiron with a look that clearly said, ‘do something, or I’ll make sure you’re the next horse they use for dog food’. Not that Chiron would be able to do anything. They didn’t even know what was going on. Jeremy was probably just coughing himself sick, though from what illness, Michael didn’t know.

Jeremy gagged again but didn’t vomit for a third time, flushing the toilet and erasing the evidence of the beautiful petals, he unlocked the bathroom door and stuck his head under the faucet soaking his head before rinsing his mouth out with a groan. “Come in Michael. I’m ok, I promise.” Jeremy’s voice wobbled as he outright lied to his best friend, the lie tasted worst in his mouth than the bile had. “Sorry Mica, I panicked and you know how much I hate being sick.”

Michael opened the door, rubbing Jeremy’s back when he got inside. “It’s alright. Don’t worry. Maybe you should come stay in my cabin for a while. I can keep an eye on you.” He offered the bottle again, this time making sure Jeremy didn’t look green before handing it over. “All us Apollo kids can look after you.” He knew Jeremy wasn’t okay, but he wasn’t going to push it. He had his own secrets after all.

Jeremy mumbled a “Maybe I should?” under his breath before he wobbled his way over to Michael and half collapsed into his best friend’s chest. He relaxed against Michael and hunched into himself before he caught a look at himself in the mirror and blanched, “Oh gods, I look like death warmed over!” leaning back into Michael he covered his mouth with his hand and  coughed up a golden petal or two, hiding them in his hand he shoved his closed fist into his pocket and smiled up at Michael, “Or maybe I should hide in my bunk away from the _other_ Apollo kids so they don’t see me looking gross and decided to poke and prod at me to figure out what’s wrong. I’m sure it’s just a respiratory infection. I got them all the time before camp...” He smiled beatifically at Michael and Chiron, noting the utter look of disapproval and the look that the old centaur was giving the hand that he had shoved into his pocket.

He helped Jeremy get back to a chair, but, as always, pushing boundaries, just pulled Jeremy into his lap, manhandling the other kid. Michael’s protective instincts were going into overdrive, and he knew that Jeremy was lying about being okay, about it just being a respiratory infection. “Well, at least have some of the nectar, and maybe some ambrosia if I can get some?” He turned to Chiron, raising an eyebrow. He glared at the man when he saw the look he was getting for holding Jeremy the way he was. It wasn’t any of the old coots business anyways. If he wanted to tell Jeremy how he felt, he would.

Jeremy let out a little sigh and relaxed back into the taller boy, Jeremy’s head fell back against Michael’s shoulder and he _tried_ to breathe as quietly as possible, not wanting Michael to freak out over the fact that his chest was rattling with every breath. “I’ll be fine, ‘m just sick Mica. Promise.” Jeremy made a gurgling sound then forced it to cut off sharply. He too busy focusing on his breathing and thinking that he needed to check the books in his cabin, surely _those_ would have something on someone vomiting up flower petals, to notice the exchange that happened between Chiron and Michael.

He grabbed the bottle and chugged half of it, hoping to ease Michael’s mounting panic and the manhandling. Normally he would mind but right now it was making the flowers in his chest swell up and gag him, he swallowed down the petals that had welled up in his mouth and turned his head into Michael’s neck, sighing and curling up against his golden boy. “I’m tired Mica. Wanna lay down, too ‘m tired to train.” There was the perfect indicator that he was sicker than he wanted to admit, _he didn’t even wanna train_.

Michael frowned, but nodded. “Yeah, come on. I’ll get you back to my cabin. I at least have a bottom bunk for you to crash on.” He could feel his own chest starting to constrict, thorns clawing their way up his throat. He turned his head and let out a single cough, a small bud falling into his hand. He quickly and discretely tossed it, catching the glare from Dionysus and Chiron about ‘littering’ He could only excuse so many rose petals as ‘I’m collecting them to make my own toner for my skin’. “Let’s go sleep, Miah.”

Jeremy slid out of Michael’s lap and wobbled to his feet, he took a few steps forwards before turning back to Michael with an exhausted but beautiful smile. “Come on Mica, I wanna take a nap before breakfast, or lunch, whichever one I’m up to eat.” Jeremy held out his hand and waited for Michael to catch up with him.

Michael had to turn his head once Jeremy got up, and hacked up some blood speckled petals from the thorns tearing his throat. It wasn’t much, and he snuck a sip of nectar to combat the injury. He slipped his own petals away, before trailing after Jeremy. “If we miss the meal, I’m sure we can come back here for more food.” He looked at Chiron, questioningly. “Right?”

“Of course Michael, make sure the two of you eat something _other_ than Nectar and Ambrosia.” Chiron inclined his head with a sigh and watched the two walk away.  
              Jeremy took Michael’s hand and the two of them walked to the Apollo cabin. He ignored the giggles and whispers as they moved through camp, he was exhausted and practically asleep on his feet by the time they got to the cabin.

When they got into the cabin, Michael all but collapsed onto his bed, pulling Jeremy with him. He kicked off his shoes, and pulled Jeremy’s off him. “Pants on or off, Jer?” He didn’t like sleeping in jeans, but at this point they were both too exhausted to care that much. Not to mention Michael was too worried about Jeremy to care too much about his own personal comfort.

“Off, I’m taking mine off at least” Jeremy dropped his jean shorts and slid into bed with Michael, and draping himself over the taller boy. He slid a hand under Michael’s shirt and rubbed his back mumbling a soothing, “Everything’ll turn out just fine, I promise, I would _never_ break a promise to you Mica.” He was already half asleep as Michael pulled his pants off so he tucked his head under the taller boy’s chin and inhaled deeply enough that his chest rattled audibly.

As Michael fell asleep, after kicking his pants off, and getting over the initial shock of Jeremy’s cold hands finding their way up his shirt, he wrapped his arms around the other boy, fighting the painful coughs that were trying to come up his throat. They were getting worse with all the affection and worry about Jeremy, and the close contact didn’t help any. But once he was asleep, his own dreams started. It was almost a parallel to Jeremy’s, but his was himself, getting wrapped in thorns from a rose plant, the vines and thorns digging into his skin and wrapping tightly around his throat. A dark laugh echoed through the dreamscape, before he woke. Jeremy was still out, so he did his best to lay back down and fall asleep again.

Jeremy moaned softly and pressed himself a bit more firmly against Michael’s chest, his breath rattling loudly enough that a few of the other Apollo kids were looking over at the bunk with worried expressions. Jeremy mumbled Michael’s name with a loving sigh in his sleep and pressed his face into Michael’s chest as he wiggled and squirmed.  
            He dreamt of the field again, this time however, he was blissfully alone with his roses and the golden sunflower that he was quickly becoming more and more enamored with. It was beautiful and it reminded him of Michael so he ran his fingers over the large bloom. He felt a jolt and opened his eyes and resting his chin on Michael’s chest, and mumbling a tired “Come back to sleepppp” and smiling as one of Michael’s hand slipped under his shirt to rub his back and the other rested on his upper thigh as he slipped back to sleep.

Grumbling, Michael just pulled Jeremy closer, too tired to care, and too comfortable to be more awake. He fell back asleep, the roses, thankfully, leaving him alone this time. This time, the roses had no thorns, and the vines just curled gently at his ankles before searching elsewhere for purchase. He sat down next to one of the plants, and gave it a fond smile and it instantly wrapped around his arm. It was appropriate, that these were the flowers he was coughing up for Jeremy. They were needy and affectionate in the best way, just like the Aphrodite boy. He let out a sad sigh though. Jeremy didn’t have hanahaki, he just had whatever this _new_ freak ass illness was. Dream-Michael didn’t have much of a chance to dwell though, before his dream was decidedly not his own anymore. A warm presence settled behind him, and he felt a hand in his hair, gently braiding some of the longer locks. “If you love him….” The voice, Michael couldn’t place. It was soft, yet held a control of power. “....Take care of him. Please.” It also had a tinge of airy-ness that Jeremy would occasionally get. As soon as Michael turned his head to see who was talking, the warmth and hand was gone, leaving him with braids going through half his head, hair flopped over on the other side. He woke up gentler this time, to the rattling of Jeremy’s breathing, and the sting in his scalp like his hair had been messed with. He reached up a hand, and felt the hair braided, and he sighed, before falling back into a dreamless sleep.

The Aphrodite boy was still standing in the field, letting the thick and prickly vines curl around his ankles, the were mildly annoying in the cute way that an insistent puppy was, begging for attention and his chest fluttered his lungs filling up with the golden flowers that surrounded him. He let out a loud wheeze as his hands came up to clasp around his throat in sudden horror and realization, _was this place his heart?!_ He agreed with the cold voice that had been mocking him, he would let something this deeply entwined into his heart and destroy him willingly. All of a sudden Jeremy breathed easier as he felt a hand press into the small of his back, “My Little Dolphin, breathe easy child, and do not panic, I am here.” He whirled around and threw himself into his mother's arms, relishing the affection she brought and the calm power that echoed around her.  
              “MAMMA!” He was delighted to see her here, but also confused, he knew this place what his heart but why was she visiting him _here_ of all places?

She hated seeing her son suffer, knowing what he had. She hated that she and the others created the disease in the first place. It was never supposed to become something they actually inflicted upon the world. And she never expected one of her children to be an unfortunate recipient of the curse. Aphrodite held Jeremy close, hugging the anxious boy, and running a hand through his hair, using some of her own powers to dampen the growing of the sunflowers in his chest. Of course, not only did he get the hanahaki, but he caught one of the largest flowers to choke on. Not that she envied the other boy any. The thorny vines of the roses would be Michael’s own downfall, she could already feel his scar tissue building.

Jeremy pressed his face into his mother's shoulder, trying to clamp down on the excitement that had burbled up into his throat along with some petals. As his mother ran her hand through his normally loose curls he could feel them tighten up significantly. “Mamma,” Jeremy mumbled into her skin before turning his head so that he could spit out the petals that had welled up in his mouth and untangle his legs from the clingy vines. “You're here, the sunflowers… they're so pretty, when they aren't clogging my throat up.” As he spoke excitedly to her petals spilled from his lips, falling to surround his feet, it didn't hurt for them to come from his chest in his dream. He was also coughing the golden petals up onto Michael's chest as he slept on.

Aphrodite gave her son a sad smile before tilting his head up. “You’re in love, my dear...And I’m so sorry for that blessing, and the curse that seemed to have followed it.” She hated this, but she didn’t have the power to make the curse go away without completely removing any and all feelings Jeremy would have had for whomever it was he had feelings for. And that was almost more cruel than letting the flowers blossom. After a few more moments of hugging her son, and trying to comfort him, she stiffened, catching a quiet whisper directly to her. And her eyes narrowed. “My sweet, I have to go. But your breathing should be easier, at least for a little while, when you wake up.” She kissed his forehead before vanishing from sight, following the call from another child of hers, one far less pleasant to see and talk to, and far less mortal.

He whispered a “bye mamma” into the wind after she had left, hoping and knowing it would carry to her despite her having gone. He plopped down into the field and allowed the sunflower vines to wrap around him and give him a gentle hug. “I'm in love,” it was a secret that he shared with the golden flowers and the blue sky. “I'm in love, and for a child for Aphrodite, falling in love is both a blessing and a curse.” He turned over onto his stomach and cupped the largest sunflower that was in the field, the face of it was turned to him like he was the sun, pressing a kiss to the golden petals he whispered. “I'm in love with my best friend, I'm in love with Michael, _fuck_.” He made a whimpering noise and curled up into himself, feeling the flowers swell almost as big as they had been before his mother had dampened them, “I'm in love with Michael and he doesn't love _me_.” Jeremy almost burst into tears, why _Michael_?! Of all people why not someone he could have forcefully removed the feelings for without it hurting his heart to do so?


	4. Chapter 4

Michael woke up when he heard whimpering, any sounds of distress that Jeremy made, automatically able to jolt him awake. He saw the younger boy curling up tighter into himself, and he also noticed the pile of rose and sunflower petals covering his chest. His eyes widened, and he quickly used his free hand to brush the petals away, they landed on the floor to be blown away by the draft. He pulled Jeremy closer, his heart aching double, now that he knew that Jeremy was in love with someone who possibly didn’t love him back. He knew that pain, had that pain, and he didn’t want that to happen to Jeremy. Anyone but him. Michael rubbed Jeremy’s back as he slept, his hand warm against the colder skin of the Aphrodite boy. He saw small tears leaking out of the other’s eyes, and he let out his own whimper, wishing he could do something about it.

Jeremy let out a rattling breath and squirmed in Michael’s arms trying to press himself into a more comfortable position against the taller boy's chest. He ended up curled up into a ball, his fingers brushing against Michael's spine as he mumbled something about, ‘not wanting to hurt his sunflower’. Jeremy was contemplating in his dream a way he could slow down the growth of the flowers without suppressing his emotions and training himself further into the ground than he had been. But he wasn't coming up with anything safe, and these golden sunflowers were huge. As Michael tugged him more firmly into his arms, he woke slowly and took in the braids in Michael's hair and then touched his own obscenely curly mess, his skin felt lighter and he reached into Michael's bedside table for a hand mirror he kept there for the shits and giggles, and saw the gorgeously done _permanent_ _makeup_ that his mother had blessed him with, his dark eyeliner and golden eyeshadow was perfect and the soft pink on his lips made him look like he was pouting. “Mamma got to your hair, Mica.”

Michael woke a little more fully, and he looked at Jeremy with a raised eyebrow, taking in the makeup on the other boy and _choking_. Jer looked good. Really good. And Michael just had to sit there and suffer through it. The flowers were proof enough that he didn’t feel the same way. It didn’t mean that Aphrodite had to be a dick about things to him though. “She what?” He made a grab at the mirror so he could see what the damage to himself was, and he was greeted by half his hair braided in rows, the rest flopping gracefully down one side. And... was it a little longer than it had been? He rolled his eyes, but didn’t mind the style. “Did you sleep okay?” Jeremy sounded a little better, and his own chest felt a little lighter, but he wasn’t certain.

Jeremy smiled up at Michael, his eyes almost melting as he pressed his cheek into the taller boy's chest to snuggle back into him. “Mamma lengthened your hair about two inches, just enough so that she could put the side braids in, I'll trim it for you later if you don't like it.” Jeremy lifted his hand to brush his fingers over the tight braids to see if he could undo the magic that had twisted them, he couldn't, but it was always nice to check. “You look nice Mica, it suits you.” Jeremy let his hand fall down from the braids to press against Michael’s heart, giving Michael loving but sleepy smile he hummed, and his next words slipped from him in a blissful sigh, “it's always easier to sleep around you Mica.” Jeremy pressed his face into Michael's chest and hummed softly, a sleepy lullaby slipping from his throat before he gave a little hiccup of a cough. With a grim determination, he swallowed the petals back down not looking at Michael as the rattling resumed in his chest. “Just a respiratory infection,” he mumbled it loud enough so that the other boy could hear it, even though he didn't _know_ that Michael knew the truth. He thought it was better to keep the fact that he was growing sunflowers in his lungs for Michael, away from the Apollo boy.

Michael blushed, turning his head as Jeremy admitted that he slept better around him, and he flipped off a few of the other campers that had come in and made ‘awwww’ faces at them. They didn’t know how sick the both of them were. “Seems like I have one too. I woke myself up coughing a few times while you were out...” Michael ran a hand, or tried to, through the thick curls that Jeremy now sported. He laughed a little as his fingers got tangled, and gently unwound the hair. It reminded him of the thornless vines that tried to wrap around him. “But yeah, your mom did visit me. Weird as it was. She wants me to look out for you.”

“Maybe my mamma’s noticed I've been training too much and is begging you to keep me in line?” Jeremy let out little laugh that quickly devolved into a loud hacking cough, cupping his hand to his mouth he rolled out of bed hitting the ground with a loud thud and bolted to the bathroom in the cabin causing the Apollo kids to yelp and ask after him as he threw open the bathroom door and slammed a stall so that he could vomit up the _full flower_ that had gagged him. He kept his heel on the bottom of the stall door moaning low in the back of his throat and slamming his fist into the white wall shattering one of the tiles in a fit of embarrassed rage. “FUCK!” He whimpered Michael’s name both wanting the other boy there with him, and not wanting Michael to see him breaking down like this; flowers in a toilet bowl and a bleeding hand from _breaking the wall_.

Michael heard the yelling and he stumbled out of his bed, planning on going to Jeremy’s aid. But he was hit with his own wave of nausea. Coughing, a rose, as well as a vine of thorns, splattered against the floor, and he took a quick swig of nectar as he saw blood in the bile. Hissing as the skin in his throat knitted back together, he wiped up the mess with a towel, kicking it under his bed. Swiping his arm over his mouth, he made his way to the bathroom, knocking on the door. “Jeremy? Jer, can I come in?”

Jeremy let out a whimpering sob and coughed up a large golden sunflower, his foot which had been holding the door closed hit the ground as he braced himself for a fit of gagging. Spitting loose petals out of his mouth he rubbed the hand that hadn't been used to crack the tiled wall along his chin as he choked as quietly as possible. As the stall door opened he reached into his throat to pull out another larger sunflower, making a couple of the Apollo kids that had gathered give worried murmurs, “Mica, it hurts! The sunflowers…” he gave a gurgle and hunched over the toilet as he choked out a thick and prickly vine.

Seeing the full sunflower, Michael winced. Jeremy had it bad for someone, and he couldn’t do anything to help, other than rub Jeremy’s back and hold him as he suffered through it. All he could do was choke down his own flowers, not needing Jeremy to worry about him. He wasn’t going to heed Chiron’s warning about healing it too much, if he wasn’t going to let Jeremy see his flowers, he’d take the consequences. “Just let it up, Miah, you’ll be okay, I promise.” Michael rubbed his back more, also lightly rubbing Jeremy’s throat, soothing the irritation that was sure to be happening.

Jeremy let out a hysterical giggle and then coughed again, this time it was far wetter than before and he spat blood into the bowl making a terrified noise in the back of his throat as his eyes widened. He wrapped his arms around Michael's arm and let out a painfully depressed laugh, under the onslaught of affection the sunflowers receded until he was breathing wetly and leaning back into Michael's chest. He knew that it was only a reprieve for the time being, but he was willing to accept it, even if he couldn't hold onto Michael's whole heart, he would gladly take the platonic friendship he could get.

“C’mon. Lets get you some water, and some real food. It’ll do you some good.” It’d do them both some good. But he wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do in the long run. “Food, and then another nap. We’ve both been sleeping like shit.” He stood up to go grab a cup to fill with water, taking a sip, and then handing it off to Jeremy. “Rinse, you’ll feel better.”

Jeremy took the cup and swished his mouth clean spitting out the blood and bile tinged water into the toilet bowl. Drinking the rest of the water he held up the flower and stared at it with awe clear on his face, he stood up with wobbly legs, walking to the sink he rinsed off the flower and snapped off part of the stem so that he could slip it behind his ear, the tight curls tangled around the stem and held it firmly in his hair. He leaned into the wall in his tank top and purple underwear, and took deep and careful breaths, waiting for Michael to drag him out for food. “Honestly I'm more interested in that nap then food, my throat is jacked up from having to yank the flower out.”

“We should still try and eat something. Puking up bile is worse for us than actual food.” Michael didn’t notice his slip of ‘us’, far too distracted by the fact Jeremy put one of his vomit flowers in his hair. He supposed that wasn’t any worse than him preserving some of the roses he choked out. But he wasn’t going to say anything about it. “Come on, just a little something anyways. I can probably find stuff for sandwiches, or I have my stash of snack food under my bed.” For an Apollo kid, Michael liked his snacks and sweets, a little on the chubbier side than his other siblings. But he didn’t mind it. It made flopping on Jeremy more comfortable, since the other kid was all bone and skin anyways.

Jeremy patted his flower, and glared at one of the younger Apollo kids that wrinkled her nose at him “I rinsed it off brat”. His eyes shifted from a darker more tired blue into a pissed ice blue, and she jumped back as one of the others dragged her by the back of her camp shirt quietly chewing her out for pissing off ‘ _Michael’s boyfriend’_. Jeremy made a huffy noise in the back of his throat, and stepped into Michael’s personal space and pressed himself against the taller boy, “I just wanna nap, ‘m not hungry recently. I think it’s the flowers.”

“Yeah, but still. You gotta eat somethin, Jer-bear. Soup? Something light?” Michael wasn’t hungry either, and he knew he couldn’t keep them living on nectar and ambrosia, as much as he wanted to. “We’ll snack, then nap again, I promise...” He squeezed Jeremy’s hand, linking their fingers without thought. “Pleassseee? For me?” Michael might have been the son of Apollo, but his warm, brown, puppy eyes were just as strong as any charm speak.

Jeremy let out a soft groan and closed his eyes, trying not to get caught in Michael’s Puppy Dog Eyes of Doom. “Fuck Mica!” he squeezed the taller boy’s hands in response and nodded in resignation. “Fine, but only a little, I really have no appetite, probably because I was swallowing the petals down so that they wouldn’t get everywhere.” he let Michael drag them to the door then dug his heels in as he realized he was what amounted to panties and a tank top and screeched, “MICA PANTS!”

Michael laughed, and then nodded. “Almost forgot those.” He dropped Jeremy’s hand and grabbed their pants, tossing Jeremy his shorts. “Come on, buttercup, let's go.” He let the other think his excitement was for food, but it was mostly for the fact that he got to spend time taking care of Jeremy. The other boy spent so much time wearing himself down and out, and would hardly listen to Michael. Of course, he knew that even when Jeremy said ‘I promise, I’ll go to bed’, he didn’t. But he wasn’t going to press the issue. He pulled his own pants up, and then held the door open for Jer.

“It's not funny Michael! I don't need to _scar_ small children with my partial nudity!” Jeremy wiggled his way into his shorts, bouncing slightly as pulled the almost too tight shorts on. When he was done he pouted at the Apollo kids who laughed at his display, it wants uncommon in the Aphrodite cabin to be pulling on tight clothing so he hadn't thought it was too weird. But he snagged Michael's hand and allowed his best friend to drag him away, laughing happily. “If you're this excited about food maybe I actually need to spend more time feeding myself!”

“Whaaa? You? Admitting you need to take care of yourself? Alert the press! Get the gods! This needs to be immortalized! Carve it into a mountain!” Michael cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “LET IT BE KNOWN, THE ONE AND ONLY JEREMY HEERE HAS ADMITTED HE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF!” Michael’s announcement was met with laughter and cheers from other campers as they made their way to the tables for food.

Jeremy kicked Michael in the back of the knee, laughing as the other boy buckled slightly, “Ass! Wait until I get you into the training field Michael, I'll give you a thrashing.” He scowled at the other campers as they ribbed him playfully, but he turned back to Michael with an embarrassed but mildly annoyed smile. “Mica I swear to the gods! Just cause I said I need to eat? Really?”

“Ooo, a thrashing? Sounds kinky.” Michael yelped when he hit the ground, but was still laughing, for once, the feelings of the flowers receding a little instead of clogging his throat. Pushing himself to his feet, he shouldered Jeremy. “Come on, food, nap, and then we can spar if you’re feeling up to it.” He smiled, offering his hand in a sign of peace.

“Totally, you'll be _begging_ me to slow down Mica.” Jeremy laughed at the high-pitched noise that Michael gave as he hit the dirt, his face lighting up as Michael retaliated by nudging him to the side, but the playful wrestling mood he was in was dispelled by the peace offering of Michael's hand. He took it with a smile and allowed Michael to take them to get something to eat. “Sounds great.” Honestly spending time with Michael _always_ sounded good but napping was his favorite part since he got to cuddle with Michael. He patted his flower to make sure it was still in place as they walked to the mess hall.

Michael tried not to choke on his own words as his brain went a direction he certainly wasn’t expecting it to go that day. Laughing it off, they got to the dining hall, snagging some plates and cups, and thinking of the food that he wanted. Michael was generally hungry, and he let out a whoop at the bacon cheeseburger and mountain dew he got, smiling at Jeremy. “You have to eat something that has at least more nutritional value than chicken broth.”

Jeremy hummed for a few moments as he thought about what he wanted, eventually though, he decided on a fruit salad and a small bowl of soup. He dug in with a little smile, enjoying the sour taste of the kiwi as he popped a hunk of it into his mouth. “I do generally eat healthier than you, when I remember to eat Michael.” It was true, but Jeremy just forgot to eat so often that it made people worry about him. He followed after Michael, sitting with him and eating bites of fruit with a hunger that he hadn’t realized had been gnawing in his stomach until he actually started to eat.

“Yeah, but like, you still have to eat regularly for that to count.” He said, around a mouthful of french fries. Leaning over, Michael snagged a strawberry from Jeremy’s salad. “Besides, I steal enough of your healthy food to count, right?” He laughed, drinking some of his soda, before letting out a little cough, sending a rose petal fluttering. Well. Shit. He played it off, pretending like it hadn’t just happened, and continued eating his burger.

“I really do try my best, I just forget to eat, I think it’s a leftover from my time on the streets,” He shrugged at the thought, the 5 months that he had spent on the streets after running away from home had been hard, but worth it, he had met Michael at the end of his long journey so he counted it as a success. Jeremy in retaliation for his lost strawberry, leaned over and took a bite out of Michael’s burger, laughing quietly to himself as he saw the scandalized look on his best friend’s face. “I’m sorry, weren’t you telling me that I needed to eat more?” He sipped at his glass of water, reveling in the slight chaos he had just caused. Jeremy’s eyes narrowed for a moment at the cough, he thought he had seen something but he wasn’t sure his face had been down in Michael’s food when the taller boy had coughed.

Michael laughed. “Yeah, but it was a strawberry! They’re one of my favorites. Besides, it’ll magically replenish.” He lightly batted jokingly at Jeremy though, at the loss of part of his burger. He was torn between ‘my not-boyfriend is eating my food, yes.’ and ‘my not-boyfriend just ate my food, the whore.’ Michael smiled though, glad to see Jeremy actually eating. “You’re not on the street any more, you have family and people looking out for you.” He leaned against Jeremy in an armless hug. “You’ve got me now.” He grinned, before polishing off the burger.

Jeremy gave Michael a smug, cat like smile as he watched the older falter over the stolen food. “Alls fair, and all that. And you know that I love strawberries, I just love fruit, don't steal my food or face my wrath, I’ll curse you with permanent, over the top, makeup.” it was a playful threat, because they both knew that Jeremy could barely curse someone even if he tried his best. Jeremy’s heart jumped in his chest and he choked down the swelling feeling in his chest, he knew that he had hearts in his eyes as he leaned back into Michael’s side as he finished off the fruit salad and got to work on the soup.

“You say that as if I don’t have my own makeup.” He laughed picking at his fries, and nabbing another bite of fruit before it was gone. “Besides, you couldn’t curse me.” He booped Jeremy’s nose. “You don’t have it in you.” Michael felt a thorn start pricking at his throat, stopping him from saying ‘besides, you love me’. And he took a drink of mountain dew to cover his coughing. He could feel petals threatening to spill out, and he did his best to keep them down. No need to worry Jeremy. Nope.

Jeremy leaned his head on Michael’s shoulder, humming softly as he ate and wishing he had some of the Apollo boy’s powers, humming a hymn and healing his best friend of whatever was ailing him was sounding better and better. “You’re right,” Jeremy sighed dramatically hoping to distract the taller boy, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead he whispered, “I love you far too much to curse you with bad eyeliner!” He smiled up at Mica, he had just said ‘I love you’ in a way that wouldn’t be questioned by Michael, it was wrapped in a joke to keep the fragile words from shattering.

“Awww, I love you too.” Michael beamed at him, even though his voice was on the mocking edge. He wasn’t about to tell Jeremy that he loved him. He wasn’t sure how his hanahaki would react to honest rejection, and he didn’t want to find out. As he finished his food though, he let out a yawn and a cough, with luckily nothing coming up. “Back to bed now? Or sparring?” Michael could honestly do either, but he was rooting for a nap. At least if they were sleeping, he could cough up flower petals in peace while Jeremy was blissfully unaware.

Jeremy yawned in an echo of Michael’s sleepy noise, “I think it’s to bed for now, you look just as tired as I did before Mamma did me up. Jeremy pushed his mostly full bowl of soup away, he had finished the fruit salad and that had been enough for him, he wasn’t as hungry as he thought he should be but it was probably because he was still tired. “We’ll get into bed and you’ll knock out like that!” Jeremy snapped his fingers and stood up, offering a hand to the taller boy.

“You’re such a dork, Jer, but yeah. I probably will.”  Michael smiled, taking Jeremy’s hand, before forcing back a wince as he felt the petals flare up, clogging his throat.  He forced them down, and apparently some thorns too, as he could taste the iron on the back of his tongue. He grabbed his soda and chugged what was left in the cup to get rid of the flavor, and he thought the words to one of the hymns, not rising humming, and let it heal his throat. His moment of panic was over, thankfully, and he smiled at Jeremy as they made their way back to the Apollo cabin.

Jeremy pulled Michael into his side, hugging the taller boy around his waist and leaning into his side. The smaller boy felt sleepy and full, but it was nice to spend the time with Michael even half asleep as they were. When they got to the cabin he dragged the Apollo boy in and flopped onto the bunk, groaning quietly in exhaustion. “I'll kick your ass later, for now, snuggle me.”

Michael snorted, but nodded, kicking his jeans off and pulling Jeremy close. “Your wish is my command, highness.” He wrapped his arms around Jeremy, using him as a human teddy bear, and he quickly fell asleep that way, comfortable and content to have Jeremy to himself like this. He knew they were getting looks from his siblings, Jake especially had been teasing Michael about ‘when are you gonna tap your little Aphrodite boyfriend?’. He’d flip him off and respond with ‘I don’t know, when are you gonna go fuck Rich?” and then laugh as Jake got pissed and threatened to beat him up. Which, he could probably do.

Jeremy was happy with the arrangement, he was comfortable in Michael's arms, it also helped that as a child of the _sun god_ he was much warmer than Jeremy was. So he pressed himself closer to the sleeping boy and let out a happy sigh, he could feel his sunflowers welling up but he forced them back down, telling himself that they were cuddling and Michael was already asleep and he didn't need to disturb it with hacking up sunflowers. “Sleep well Michael, breathe a little easier.” He let his words lace ever so slightly with magic, charming the older boy into a sounder sleep, before he too passed out.

Sleeping with Jeremy with him was more than beneficial to just Jer. Michael also slept easier, though he did cough out petals while he slept. The softness of them brushing against his face caused him to wrinkled his nose, and pout in his sleep. But he didn’t wake. He just held Jeremy a little tighter, and continued on with a dreamless nap, thankful for no spooky interruptions.


	5. Chapter 5

Jeremy woke up first about two hours later and let out a surprised yelping sound, at some point Michael had rolled them onto their sides, and between them was a large puddle of gorgeously red flower petals. He leaned over and pressed his ear to the taller boy’s chest and then shook the Apollo boy, expression panicked as he watched a petal slip from his golden boy’s lips “Mica! Wake up!”

Michael let out a cranky grumble, and batted at Jeremy’s hand, eyes shut. “Noooo. Jerrrrr. 10 more minutes.”  He made a sleepy grab for the other boy to cuddle him close again, about two seconds away from passing back out.

Jeremy let out a loud squawk as Michael caught him by the arm and reeled him back in, in a panic, Jeremy shoved some of the petals off the bed, not wanting to be caught knowing about them. He had seen something red slip from Michael’s lips when they had been eating earlier, but he hadn’t imagined it would be a petal, his heart broke a little as it further confirmed in his mind that Michael didn’t love him. He mourned a bit as he thought that his gorgeous golden boy was probably in love with someone else who was prettier and had nicer curves, _that didn’t love Michael back, the monster!_ But he let Michael drag him back into his chest and he snuggled up sadly, and laid on Michael wide awake for a time. His heart aching in his chest and his lungs feeling far too full.

Curling around Jeremy, he buried his face in his neck, smiling softly in his sleep. A quiet mumbled, 'mine’, echoed through the mostly empty cabin. Michael was having a good dream, one where his feelings towards Jeremy we're reciprocated, and he didn't want to wake up. He let the vines wrap more around his legs, dragging him willingly into the field of thorns and roses.

The Aphrodite boy let out a sad noise, the affection that he didn't know was for him was sweet, but it stuck like a bur in his throat. He was trying his hardest not to be resentful as he was suddenly pulled into sleep and a dream. He was in his field again, but his once gorgeous red roses looked dull and washed out while the sunflower plant was bigger than ever and glowing with a golden inner light, collapsing to his knees with choked cry, he curled up and started sobbing quietly, the sunflowers vines were wrapping around his legs and hips as if they were trying to soothe him. Who could Michael love that wouldn't love him back? Why did Michael have to love someone else, Jeremy was good enough for love, he was a child of the _love goddess_ for mom’s sake! Suddenly a cold hand grabbed onto his shoulder and he jumped, whirling around with a teary-eyed glare he looked up into an ice-cold face.

Michael frowned in his dream, something not right. The thorns were strangling him and he couldn't breathe. His physical body was coughing up full flowers, wide and fully bloomed. He whined in his sleep, trying to get closer.

Jeremy was glaring up into the face of the icy but beautiful winged man, the mortal son of Aphrodite was letting the vines tighten around him, it was painful as the prickled had turned into something resembling thorns in his hysterical fit of grief. He let out a watery but furious “This is my mind and heart, I gave you no permission to enter here!” Jeremy knew he was being exceedingly rude to the winged god, but he was grieving over his broken heart. He was also letting his ugly emotions get the better of him, seeing as he had let some charmspeak slip into his voice.

Michael pulled at the vines wrapping around his neck, writhing and calling out for Jeremy, for anyone. Everything hurt, and he couldn’t breathe, and it felt like his dreamscape was closing in on him. He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t. Some of the thorns had an electric blue tinge to them, that almost would have been pretty had they not been stabbing at his skin and trying to force their way out of his mouth. Other kids in the Apollo cabin looked at Michael as some vines came out in actuality, ripping at the skin of his lips to get through. They looked in horror, not sure what to do, as flowers continued to pool between the two sleeping boys, who seemed too weak to stir.

Jeremy stood up, letting the thorny vines shred his skin, he could _hear_ Michael whimpering but he wasn’t _waking up_! As the dark-winged god smirked and moved to speak, Jeremy yelled hysterically, throwing as much charmspeak behind his word as he could despite his terror of the power. “Leave us, ALONE! LEAVE MICHAEL ALONE!” Outside the dreamscape the words came out as a terrified whimper. And the god grabbed him by the shoulders bruising the skin as he dragged Jeremy forwards to whisper into his ear, “Fine, but I’ll be seeing you around _little brother._ ” Jeremy jolted awake and flung himself out of the bed and onto the floor as he panted in a wildly blind panic, before he remembered; “Michael!!!”

All of a sudden, the vines in his dreams were receding, but the roses were wilting, and he was in a panic trying to get them to not droop. He didn’t know what it meant, but he was certain it wasn’t good.  It was bad enough he was coughing them up, but the ones in his dreams were dying? He didn’t want that to happen. A fit of harsh coughs wracked his body, and he woke up, leaning over the side of his bed to vomit a large white rose complete with thorny vines and specks of blood onto the floor. Everything _hurt_ , and he just wanted to hug Jeremy, for things to go back to normal, and be fine, like before he got feelings for his best friend, before he started choking on flowers every night. Before his dreams got violent and dark and dangerous.

Jeremy had lunged to the bed when Michael leaned over the side to vomit up the beautiful but terrifying white rose. His hands cupped Michael’s cheeks, and he let his fingers slide into the hair that his mother hadn’t braided. Jeremy was still hysterical, his shoulders were aching in pain and steadily going purple and blue in the place where he had been grabbed. But he was more worried about Michael, he could handle all the pain in the world, hold up the sky, die willingly if it meant that Michael would be safe and happy. So he pressed a kiss to the top of Michael’s head, trying not to cry over his best friends distressed whining. “Everything’ll be ok, I promise,” his voice cracked, “You’ll be ok, Styx, Michael, you’ll be ok, I swear!” the words came out sounding a lot more honestly and he turned to look around at the frozen and horrified Apollo kids, and actually used charmspeak in his panic “GET SOME NECTAR!”

Michael flinched a little at the kiss, knowing there was no way that Jeremy felt the same about him, that he was just worried because they were friends. Another cough sent a swirl of petals onto the ground, and he just shut his eyes, pretending like he didn’t see them. His chest hurt, and all of his limbs ached in the way that only a pining heart could know. He prayed to Apollo to ease Jeremy’s flowers, and a small hymn in thought to help his own throat. He knew that he shouldn’t do this as often as he had, it wasn’t even the evening yet, and he had just seen Chiron that morning. But he supposed all the turmoil that was going on was aggravating the condition more than if he had just went about his day as normal. “I... I’m fine, Jer.. Don’t cry about this.” He tried to crack a smile, but spat out a thorn instead.

Jeremy tangled his fingers into Michael’s hair a bit more firmly and pressed another kiss to Michael’s head a bit more insistently. He let the hand that wasn’t in the Apollo boy’s hair rub at his back, trying to soothe the coughing as best he could, but unlike Michael, Jeremy didn’t have any healing powers. Michael spitting out the thorn just put Jeremy more firmly into his hysterical crying. He snagged the bottle of nectar from a dazed Apollo kid and pressed it against Michael’s lips, “Drink a little, please, for me Michael?” Jeremy could feel his flowers swelling up but he forced it back gritting his teeth and swallowing a couple times, _Michael_ was in pain and Jeremy needed to be there even if the taller boy didn’t love him that way, he’d go back to his cabin to cry and throw up flowers later. He was decidedly ignoring the fact that he had visible bruises developing on his shoulders and made soothing sounds in the back of his throat.

Michael leaned into the touches, and took a sip of the nectar, hissing as it went down. Usually it was a good taste and feeling, but the lining of his throat was so raw that it burned. He wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t notice Jeremy holding back coughing, and he shoved the bottle back towards him. “Your turn, Miah. Don’t act like you’re fine. I know you cough up petals too..” His voice sounded wrecked, and any other day, Michael would have made a joke that ‘wow, I must have sucked a lot of dick in my dream’, but for some reason, that didn’t seem appropriate at the moment.

Jeremy took the bottle and quickly took a large gulp, he could feel it go bitter in his throat, and he could feel his skin heat up a bit dangerously, he drank far too much nectar today and he could feel the energy humming in his skin, making him feel itchy and eager for a fight. He almost missed the stupid dick sucking joke that Michael would normally crack, and the lack of it made his heart ache. “I’m not spitting up thorns though _Mica_!” He shouldn’t be getting this angry, but his tears were spilling over and Michael had scared him dammit! He hiccupped a sob and spit out single petal.

He reached down and pulled Jeremy back onto the bed, and then curled up in his lap, laying his head on the other boy’s thighs, shaking a little. He made sure to have his face in Jeremy’s stomach so the Aphrodite boy couldn’t see the tears he was shedding. He loved Jeremy so much. And part of him resented the fact that he wasn’t loved the same way, but the rest of him relished the fact that he had Jeremy as a friend, had him in his life at all. A steady stream of tears rolled down his face, but at least the hacking up of flowers seemed to have ceased. Crying oneself into exhaustion seemed to have the same effect of being painful and draining.

Jeremy just curled around Michael the tears running down his cheeks as he pressed his face into Michael's back and whispered softly into the taller boy's skin, “dammit, Mica don't cry, please. I wish I could make them love you.” It was a weak plea, they couldn't possibly love Michael as much as _he_ did. Jeremy let out a broken but quiet sob. He was shaking with something that was somewhere between hysterical laughter and sobbing. He was breathing shallower, trying to keep from coughing up more flowers as he hugged the golden boy to his stomach.

Michael mumbled something unintelligible against Jeremy’s stomach, not intending for him to ever hear it anyways.  It might have been something along the lines of ‘You can’t charmspeak yourself’. He hated that he was in love with him. He hated that he was making Jeremy cry. He let himself be a little selfish though, taking some comfort from him. He couldn’t let him do it though, and he pulled himself up, before pulling Jeremy to him, burying his face in the other’s hair. He muttered soft words of love to him, but not in English, and he was hoping that Jeremy wouldn’t hear them or understand them.

Jeremy’s face crumpled up into a mask of grief as Michael buried his face into his fluffy hair, so Jeremy hugged the taller boy around the waist and flopped them over, he dragged the taller boy a bit more firmly against him, he heard the mumbling but dismissed it, Michael was either trying to soothe him with almost unbearable words or was humming another hymn, the idiot. Tangling his fingers into the back of the Apollo boy's shirt he let out a little hiccup and spit out a mouthful of petals with a sad scowl.

“I hate this…” He frowned, hugging Jeremy. “I don’t get why the gods thought this would be a good thing to make.” He picked  up a tiny sunflower that Jeremy coughed up, holding it and growling in frustration. “Fuck you guys!” He directed it at the ceiling, but he held the flower carefully. “I wish I could make whoever it was, love you back. How anyone couldn’t love you back is beyond me.” Michael stroked the petals softly. “You’re fucking perfect. Like, sure, you’re a huge nerd, but so am I, and like. You’re wonderful.” He ruffled the petals slightly, humming at how soft they were.

He let out a choked laugh, and shook his head, the sentiment was nice but if Michael didn't love him, Jeremy wouldn't want the love to be forced. “I wouldn't do that to them, they're clearly in love with someone else.” His bottom lip trembled, and he bit down on his lip in an attempt to keep from crying, he had cried himself out in his dreamscape and he was achy from grieving. “Mamma said it was just an idea, maybe someone else wove it into actuality?” Maybe it was _him_ , Jeremy eyes went flat and one of his hands went up to touch the dark bruises that were in stark contrast to his pale skin and his orange camp tank top’s straps.

“They’re stupid then. It’s obvious the best person to love is you.” Michael gave him a puffy eyed smile, before frowning when he noticed the bruises, running his hands lightly over them. “What happened?” He hummed as he touched them, trying to heal the bruising. He didn’t like seeing the ugly purple-ish green that was forming there. It looked like Jeremy was going to cry, and that made Michael’s heart hurt even more, and he swallowed down a thorny vine that was threatening to crawl up his throat.

The grief had passed for the moment when he saw the look of concern and sympathy well up on Michael's face. “I'm hardly the best person, they'd love me if I was, wouldn't they?” Jeremy laughed a soft but bitterly amused laugh and then yelped in pain, grabbing Michael's wrists he pulled the hands off the bruises grimacing at the fact that Michael's gift had actually _hurt_ him. “Don't worry, it's not your fault, it's was that _god_. He must have put some magic into his hands when he grabbed me, I'm afraid I must have pissed him off.” He snarled and rubbed at his shoulders, feeling dirty under the phantom touch.

Michael frowned harder, before he lightly kissed the bruise, in a calling back to when they were little, and Michael had taken on a motherly role, kissing Jeremy’s bumps and bruises better. “You actually saw the god this time? And he hurt you?” He was angry, and if he ever met that god, he’d do his best to end him. That might piss off the pantheon, but this god was hurting Jeremy, leaving bruises, not letting him sleep. And he was frustrated.

Jeremy sighed and shifted slightly into Michael's lips, "I panicked when he arrived and attempted to charmspeak him from our minds, he dragged me to him and called me little brother," Jeremy didn't mention that he had only used charmspeak when telling the god to leave Michael alone, but he bit down on his bottom lip and looked away guiltily.  
  
He wrinkled his nose. "So, the fucker is a child of Aphrodite? And he thinks this is okay?" He was going to go on a rampage. What did he have available to him right then? Some sporks and a package of beef jerky. It'd have to do, because Michael was going to leave right then and there and get to Olympus. Fuck the camp, fuck Chiron, Fuck Mr. D, and especially fuck the god that thought he could get away with hurting Jeremy. Who managed to get the boy who was terrified of charm speak, to use it.  
  
Jeremy dropped himself over Michael's stomach keeping the fuming older boy in place, and safe with him instead of going on a rampage through Olympus. He wiggled a bit and wrapped his arms around Michael's shoulders shushing him. Jeremy took advantage of the slight pause and dragged Michael down, chuckling softly. "I'll be fine, hey, I managed to charmspeak a god!" The end of the sentence was a mix of utter terror (how had he managed to charmspeak a GOD) and pride.  
  
Michael let out a little bit of a laugh as Jeremy pinned him down. "That you did." A passing camper smirked at the two. "Wow you two, still in bed and going? Who knew you had that much stamina." They were teasing, but Michael flipped them off anyways.  
  
Jeremy curled up into and hid in Michael's chest, his face and the back of his neck going a bright red. He knew that he should probably be proud of the advantages his genes gave him, but his sisters always teased him about it. So instead of acknowledging the teasing like Michael had, he completely ignored it, opting instead to rub at his sore and purpling shoulders.  
  
"do you think Tylenol would do anything for your bruises…?" Michael rubbed at his back, soothing the smaller boy, though part of him wanted to be ornery. Jeremy's sides were exposed, and it'd be perfect for a tickle attack. But Michael held back, just settling for holding him. He wished that Jeremy returned his feelings, even though he knew it was impossible. If he did neither of them would be coughing up gardens. And he doubted they'd be being dream stalked by a mystery god.  
  
"It'd be worth a shot, I can't have any more nectar or ambrosia, I can feel it humming under my skin." Jeremy let his fingers slide under the neck of Michael's shirt, the act was entirely self-indulgent, he had seen his sisters do it to their significant others and they all said that the soft touch made pulses rush. He was wrapped in the arms of the boy he loved and his heart, while aching slightly, felt full and warm.  
  
Michael flopped the arm that wasn't around Jeremy over the side of his bed, fumbling for the bottle of pills. His breath hitched when Jeremys finger traced his skin. It would have been so easy to close his eyes and pretend like everything was alright, and he did, after handing the bottle to Jeremy. "H-here. Do you need water or are you good dryswallowing?"  
  
Jeremy let out a little huff of laughter, his cheeks flushing pink as he mumbled a joke along the lines of 'he asked me if I can swallow' and after opening the bottle palmed two of the pills and swallows them down dry. Tossing the bottle to the nightstand Jeremy leaned a bit more into Michael's space and pressed his cheek against his chest as he looked up at the taller boy from under his lashes.  
  
Michael smiled down softly at him, dragging his fingers along Jeremy's spine. "Getting sleepy again? I think your gifts showing through a little stronger." He continued the slow strokes. And maybe he was getting sleepy too, because the next words out of his mouth weren't as guarded as they would have been. "So soft and pretty, Jer... whoever doesn't love you is stupid..."

Jeremy felt his cheeks so red and he let out a tiny mewl of a moan, the fingers on his back felt so nice considering it was Michael who was touching him, and the soft touches were comforting in comparison to his aching shoulders. Hearing Michael's words he froze up and almost recoiled, thinking that he'd been unconsciously charming Michael into wanting him. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!" Jeremy started to stutter, he was going green around the gills as he thought about it, "I wouldn't do that to you! I couldn't _charm_ you like that! I swear!" At this point he was almost trying to convince himself, sure he had been half asleep but he wouldn't try and charm Michael into bed with him, right?

“Woah woah, slow down there!” He wrapped both arms around Jeremy. “you weren't charming me!” Michael was also looking a little panicked. “No! I just meant the sleeping beauty side was coming out more!” He hugged Jeremy close, rubbing his back. “I promise. I promise you weren't charming me.”

“Ok, if you’re promising me.” Jeremy let out a shuddering breath and pressed his face into Michael’s throat, his hands had tangled themselves into the taller boy’s shirt in his panic. He had almost forgotten about that stupid nickname, and that stupid twist on his powers, the happier he was the more “pretty” he looked, and generally his mindscape was a lovely place so when he slipped into sleep… Well, there _was_ a reason he was teasingly called sleeping beauty. “Sorry, I’ve been charmspeaking too much today and I thought it slipped into my actions.” it was an awkward explanation, but he had seen one of his sister’s charmspeak a mortal with a seductive smile and some batting lashes and the dumbass had been putty in her hands, they had named it (so _creatively_ ) Charming.

Michael murmured soft soothing sounds into Jeremy’s hair, continuing to rub his back. Part of him was mourning the fact that the touches were just eliciting calming factors, and not the adorable little moan from before. Michael wished Jeremy wasn't quite so oblivious. He wished the son of the goddess of love could see that Michael was in love with him. But he also didn't want to go through his best friend rejecting him. Michael knew his heart wouldn't be able to handle that. “I’d never lie to you, Jeremy. And that's a promise too.”

Jeremy made huffy noises and relaxed back into the touches, his body going limp against Michael’s. He let out a happy sounding whimper as the hands dipped from being soothing into a bit firmer and pressing into sore muscles, _gods above_ , Michael was good with his hands. He desperately tried not to think about what else the Apollo boy could do with those hands that would leave him whimpering. He let his body slip down Michael’s and wrapped his arms around the taller boy’s waist as he pressed his face into his best friend’s stomach.

That turned Michael into a blushing, stuttering mess. There was no way that this was happening. Michael had died, this was death, right? The Greeks were wrong, and this was Hell, being tortured by having the love of his life’s face shoved just inches away from his crotch, practically purring. “Y-ya comfortable there?” He saw a few of his siblings snickering as they walked past, his obvious crush anything but secret. Deciding to be self-indulgent, he ran his hand through Jeremy’s hair, lightly scratching at his scalp.

Jeremy nodded, then flopped to the side slightly, like a big cat, keeping his face pressed against stomach and he made quiet happy noises in the back of his throat. “That’s nice.” he was referring to the hand that was running though his tight curls, but he was also talking about having his face pressed into Michael’s stomach. When the Apollo boy started scratching at his scalp he groaned low the sound coming from the middle of his chest.

Humming his agreement, Michael nodded. “Spending time with my player two always is.” He beamed, but was glad that Jeremy had finally stopped moving. He wouldn’t have been able to take it much longer if there was more wiggling, or wiggling that was closer to his crotch. Michael was dying, but it was a good kind of death, albeit a torturously slow one.

“I would hope so!” _you’re the only one worth spending time with Michael_. Jeremy hummed under his and did his best to drag Michael down into bed with him, “When we go spar later, imma kick your ass.” He was distracting himself from his traitorous thoughts with the taunt. He pulled his face out for Michael’s stomach and look up at the taller boy long enough to give him a wicked smirk.

“Sure you will. You can’t kick this.” He laughed, but his mouth went dry at the smirk he was being given. “I can totally beat you. Easy as pie.” He laid down fully with Jeremy, still a little unnerved as the other boy still had his face just barely out of his stomach. Michael could feel the warmth from the other. He continued his scratching though, laughing at how the other boy was such a cat about his cuddling and his pets.

Jeremy crawled up Michael’s body a bit, and flopped back down, he pressed his cheek into Michael’s ribs while tangling their legs together. Then he leaned into the hand that was working through his hair, groaning softly. “Nope, imma kick your ass, it’s my job need to knock you down a few pegs _golden boy,_ ” Jeremy didn’t mention that he thought if he could impress Michael with his strength that maybe he could woo Michael “besides, you have to get in close with your sword, I just have to hold you at a distance.”

Michael snorted. “I’ve never had a problem getting close to you,” He would have winked if it wouldn’t have been lost on the other boy. “You always seem to leave an opening for me.” Michael was blushing, but he was glad that Jeremy wasn’t looking at him, instead having cuddled into his ribs. He let out a little yawn though, hoping for once that they would be able to nap without a freaky dream or an evil god interrupting them.


	6. Chapter 6

A few hours later Jeremy and Michael were on the training field warming up for their spar. Jeremy hadn’t had any more godly intruders in his dreamscape, thank Morpheus, but all the colors _had_ seemed just a bit washed out. But they were stretching a few campers trickling into the stands to watch them go at it. He waved at one of his older sisters as they dropped onto a bench before he bent over and hugged his knees.

Michael was sitting on the ground, bent in half as he stretched out. He stuck his tongue out at Jeremy, playful teasing as he went through the process of making sure he didn’t hurt himself during their spar. It seemed like a few people had gotten word as they were stretching, because the stands were filling up at least a little bit. People liked to watch the ‘duo’ as they were named, go at it because of the interesting dynamic between the two.

One of the Aphrodite girls called out to Jeremy mockingly, “Little brother, if you don’t stretch out all the way you’ll break your lanky ass! We’ve all seen you do more impressive stretches when you wake up in the morning!” the pale boy scowled, flipped his laughing sisters off, and immediately threw one of his legs up behind him and worked himself into a standing split. He let out a little groan as his hip popped and his cheeks flushed a bit over the sudden wolf whistling but his sister _had_ been right, he would end up hurting himself if he didn’t stretch out all the way because he was embarrassed.

Michael froze as his face was halfway to the dirt, choking as he saw the stretch Jeremy was doing. “How the _fuck_ are you doing that?” His head popped up almost too quickly, worried that Jeremy had broke himself or something. That didn’t look like it should be physically possible to do. He heard laughing from the Aphrodite girls, and he just frowned at them. He didn’t like them much, even though they were Jeremy’s sisters. They tended to be almost cruel to some of the ‘less cool’ campers.

Jeremy looked at Michael a bit embarrassed but his expression was deadpan as he spoke, “It’s a mixture of natural Aphrodite flexibility, and conditioning.” He wasn’t going to explain, here in front of everyone, that Aphrodite kids were stretched into flexibility if they weren’t up to par, they _needed_ to be fast and flexible to bend and weave out of the way of monsters and opponents because they weren’t as _strong_ as the other demigods, so they took what they had and pushed it to the limits. He dropped out of the split and worked his other leg up.

“Huh.” Michael made an attempt to do the same thing, just for fun, and nearly fell on his face. “Fuckin’ hell.” He let himself out of the attempted stretch, and settled for his usual regimen of moves, nothing fancy, nothing that provocative, though he did do a few more ankle grabs than needed. He was excited to spar though. All the godly food that he and jeremy had been eating needed a release, more than just crying and cuddling and puking up the gods forsaken flowers.

Jeremy laughed along with his sisters as they watched Michael nearly fall over, his wasn’t nearly as mocking theirs, but he did smirk at the taller boy, “I was going to say _don’t_ do that cause you could hurt yourself and rip a muscle, but instead you nearly fell on your face, well done Mica!” dropping his leg back down to the ground, Jeremy slowly slid into a full saddle split, groaning at the burn it was causing in his thighs and half wished he could call one of his sisters over to push on his back. But the way their cabin stretched would scare the hades out of the rest of the campers.

Finishing up his stretches, Michael stood, dusting himself off and pulling out his sword and shield from the watch band he had. He made sure it was properly edged for a sparring match, sliding the buffers along the tip and edges. Same for with his shield. He didn’t want to end up doing more than bruise Jeremy, and he was even hesitant to do that. But he always liked their play fights. They had a tendency of getting intense.

Jeremy spent a few more seconds shifting uncomfortably in his splits before he noticed that Michael was putting his weapons in order. So Jeremy almost leapt out of the splits and pulled one of his earrings entirely off, making his Yari spear go full sized with the buffering sheath still on the blade. The Aphrodite boy was almost vibrating out of his skin he was so excited, he _loved_ sparring with Michael, it was fun to test each other and sometimes they just ended up laughing and wrestling as they worked off energy. Twirling the spear around he smiled brilliantly at Michael and gave a happy, “ready whenever you are Mica.”

Michael flashed him a grin and a wink, before starting to dart in close, careful to avoid the tip of the spear. He knew he was going to end up with stripes from getting hit with the pole, but it wasn’t a ‘killing’ blow unless he got hit with the metal tip. He and Jeremy hadn’t had a chance to properly spar in a while, and he was trying to avoid sloppy mistakes while at the same time wanting to make any move he could.

Jeremy let out a delighted laugh and spun the spear again, ready to block and parry the sword. The Aphrodite boy didn’t use a shield like Michael did, he had the thought that, even though it could be a good blunt weapon, he had no use for it when he relied on speed. Michael had all power and strength behind his thrusts and blows. He whapped Michael in the thigh with the pole of his spear, laughing again happily “You’re not blocking there Mica! You’re fighting with a shield, you should probably use it!” This was _fun_ to him, spending this time with Michael training and sparring, getting better so they could watch each other's backs.

“Not all of us think with our poles, Dolphin boy!” He laughed, before pushing the spear away, shouldering past Jeremy’s defences, and landing a glance to his shoulder, ducking into a roll to make sure he could back away from the business end of the spear. Once getting behind Jeremy, he made to tap at his ankle with the tip of his sword. “Come on, is that all you got? Smacking me? Jeesh Jer, that’s hardly a power move. You know I’m into that.”

“Michael Mell! Did you just refer to my weapon as my _dick?!?_ ” The crowd laughed at his mock offended words. He took the hit to the shoulder with a soft groan of annoyance, half muttering “why is it my shoulder today?” and followed Michael’s movements with a tilt of the head and a steady blue gaze. Jeremy let out an ugly and unattractive laugh as he felt the tip of Michael’s sword against his ankle and lunged forwards. Bringing the butt of his spear back into Michael’s shield he did his best to knock it away as he kicked out for the taller boy’s knees.

Michael yelped when he got kicked in the knee, sinking down onto it, before pushing himself up, smacking at the spear with his sword, trying to wrench it out of Jeremy’s grip. He knew the boy had two long poles, but if he could get him into closer ranged fighting, things would go a little easier for the son of apollo. He wouldn’t have to focus so hard on managing to get closer. And then he could exploit the fact that Jeremy was ticklish.

Jeremy half groaned as he almost lost his entire grip on his spear, his left hand had been wrenched off by the jerking motion and he jumped back twice trying to disengage from Michael’s shield. He dropped the spear, knowing that he had lost it, it was tangled up it the taller boy’s sword and shield so like any sane person, he turned around and bolted, doing his best to pull out his _other_ spear as quickly as possible, cursing loudly the entire time. “FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK!”

Laughing, Michael let the first spear clatter to the ground, kicking it away to the side of the arena. “Is this all you got, Jer-bear? With all the time you take polishing your spear, you’d think you’d be better at handling it.” It was a good natured jab, and Michael grinned as he said it. He knew that Jeremy was great at his weapons, and that when it came to them sparring, a lot came down to chance. He didn’t want Jeremy thinking that Michael thought he was incapable.

Jeremy let out a noise thaw sounded like a mix of a strangled scream and a laugh, it _was_ a great joke. But eventually Jeremy got tired for fumbling with the earring and just yanked it out of his ear. Lobbing a knife at Michael’s feet to stop the taller boy’s advancement he gave his spear the chance to grow to full size, and he lunged towards the taller boy with an almost savage grin. He was _far_ better with his naginata and they both knew it, he swung and slashed the long pole arm. “Oh, can’t keep up? That’s fine, Aphrodite kids _are_ known for their stamina!”

Michael winced as the blunted blade of the weapon caught him in the arm. “I can keep up just fine. There’s a reason that Apollo is so desirable.” He laughed breathlessly, ducking under the next swing. He lashed out with his sword again, feigning left and then coming in strong on the right. He could hear some whoops from his cabin mates, and groans from Jeremy’s.

Jeremy’s eyes widened in surprise and he let out a half formed curse, and shifted his spear to try and catch the blow, he managed to half catch it, but was sent flying a few feet and landed hard on his ass. Shaking out his arms he got back to his feet as quickly as he could he shifted back into a fighting stance. “You’re getting faster, which is good for you, but sucks for me, since I was the fastest outside of the Hermes kids!”

“You’re not the only person that trains out her, Jer.” He took a few steps back, letting Jeremy catch his breath some. The actual exhaustion that they had been suffering from was starting to kick in more, overriding the energy from the nectar and ambrosia. “Being fast isn’t always a good thing though…” As Jeremy came at him again, he slipped behind, giving him a light shove, using his momentum against him.

Michael’s sudden shift from in front of him to beside and slightly behind him startled Jeremy more than the light shove did. The blade of his polearm thankfully, had been pointed slightly down, so what could have been a tragedy with him landing on his spear turned into a slight advantage. He dug the blade into the ground and vaulted himself into the air, yanking his blade out of the ground as he twisted to land on his feet, “Ooh Boy! I got really lucky there. That could have been bad.” Isabella, of his sisters had let out an impressed wolf whistle at the show of midair flexibility and he laughed a little as he smiled at Michael smugly.

Michael just stared at Jeremy as he landed gracefully. He’d never get tired of seeing Jeremy, especially a happy jeremy. And maybe he was watching for too long, because the next thing he knew, he was knocked on _his_ ass, and was spluttering up dust, and getting to his feet as quickly as possible.

As Michael jumped back to his feet, the fact that the hard shove with the blunted blade of his polearm had knocked Michael onto his ass had Jeremy in hysterical laughter. He jumped back a few times, getting some distance between them as he rubbed away the tears that had welled up. “Zeus, Michael, If I was a monster you’d be dead!” He darted in and swinging his spear at the taller boy’s ankles in an attempt to make him lose balance.

He managed to get one leg over the spear, but the other ankle wasn’t so lucky. He let out a hiss, before dropping his sword and shield, and launching himself at Jeremy. Michael was his own best projectile, and he let out a proud cry as he at least made contact, hoping he weighed enough to knock Jeremy down by brute force alone. “If you were a monster, you’d be dead! One arrow headshot is all it would take.”

He let out a crow of delight as he got the taller boy off his feet, then as Michael threw down his weapons Jeremy took a step back in a vain attempt of escape and ended up just throwing his spear to the side so he wouldn’t accidently hurt Mica. Jeremy let out a startled shriek as Michael took him down, considering the son of Apollo was two years older and about half a foot taller, Jeremy went down _hard_ , groaning under his best friend as he tried to wiggle away. “CHEATER!”

“All’s fair, jer-bear! You said it yourself!” He pinned Jeremy down, hands skittering over his sides, tickling him. “Are you giving up, or are you gonna fight back?” Michael grinned. “Come onnn, don’t tell me that infamous stamina you’re always talking about is giving out on you now.” He heard a shout of ‘Low blow, Mell!’, from the stands, and he just blew a kiss in the general direction.

Jeremy let out a high pitched laughter and twisted so that he could hook one of his legs around Michael’s and shoved as hard as he could, twisting his body hard he threw Michael off him and scrambled away still giggling. “ _Tickling isn’t a war tactic, it’s a way to lose fingers and get donkey kicked in the legs!_ ” Jeremy was breathless and shrill as he lunged for his spear, hoping to get to it and get some more room between them, despite enjoying having Michael on top of him, Jeremy _hated_ being tickled.

Michael was laughing. “Aw, come on now, don’t be like that.” He saw Jeremy was going for the spear though, and he made a grab for the other one that he had kicked away earlier. Distance wasn’t really his specialty, but it beat getting whapped with the pole again. He was positive he was going to have bruises after this.

Jeremy snagged the handle of his spear and twisted mid step, bringing it across Michael’s waist with about a quarter of his full strength, it would hurt and leave a bruise, but it wouldn’t do any lasting damage aside from the discoloration. He let out a giggle and jumped back a few times, twisting his spear around and around in his hands as he noticed that Michael had snagged up his other pole arm. “ _Really?_ You’re going to fight me using _my_ weapon?” some of his sister’s and the Apollo kids laughed at the sheer disbelief in his tone. Michael was good at using his sword and shield and _really_ good with a bow and arrow in hand. But the Apollo boy had never _bothered_ with spears, and that was why Jeremy was giggling as he circled the taller boy, “Maybe this’ll turn into a learning exercise, I’ll teach you how to use a spear, _if you can handle something that long_.” The good spirited taunt sent the teens in the stands howling with laughter and Jeremy looked a bit more smug for it.

He hefted the spear, testing the balance. It wasn’t all that different than a sword, really. Just, this was definitely a two hander, and not his hand and a half sword he was used to. He hummed as he thought to himself, making sure not to take too long as he did so. Would this be like using the plastic Darth Maul lightsaber? He remembered fighting his little cousins with that, and doing too badly at it. “Hey, it was closer to me than my sword. I get to work with what I have. Besides, I’ve been waiting to get a hand on your weapon. Take it for a test ride.” He didn’t really think as he spoke, before he tried giving it a simple twirl, before making a lunge at Jeremy.

Jeremy froze and blushed at the sudden hooting from his sisters, then threw himself to the side and into a roll as Michael lunged for him. Bringing his spear up he batted the one that Michael was weilding to the side and slammed the shaft of the polearm into the side of the Apollo boy’s thigh a bit harder than he had meant to and bounded to his feet. “I was half hoping you would fumble the twirl, then again, I can do cooler things for example.” He threw his spear up into the air and drew a  his dagger with a flick of the wrist so that he could catch the tumbling spear and jump into Michael’s space, swinging at the taller boy’s feet with the spear and bringing the knife to tap at Michael’s hands, taking advantage of the fact that Michael was _holding the spear wrong_ , Jeremy’s eye went wide in sudden horror, “How the fuck do you think you’re holding that Michael?!?” and he flung himself backwards.

Michael grit his teeth as his thigh took the force of Jeremy’s hit. It wasn’t as controlled as the other blows had been, and he knew if he didn’t ice it when he got back to the cabin, he’d be limping. “I’m a quick study when it comes to poles.” He darted backwards when Jeremy tried to get closer to him, but ended up catching blades to his knuckles, and he glared. “What do you mean? I’m holding it?” He wasn’t sure what was going on, so he adjusted his grip, trying to hold it more like jeremy. “You act like i just said i was going to kill your dog or something.”

“Your back hand is too forwards! No! Don’t copy me! I’m using a different _kind_ of spear Michael Christopher Mell!” Jeremy was steadily retreating away from his best friend, and he nodded in agreement with his one of his sister’s when they shouted for Michael to just toss aside Jeremy’s spear and go for his normal weapons. “I agree with Bella, I promise to teach you spear wielding _properly and safely_ another day.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Fineeeee.” He set the spear down, but was pouting about it. How hard could it have been, really? He went and grabbed his sword and shield, but wasn’t really feeling it any more. The limp was already starting to set in from the extra hard whack to his thigh, not to mention the bruises striping up his ankles and and calves. “I still don’t get what the issue is. Keep away from the stabby end, and don’t get stabbed by somebody else's stabby end.”

Jeremy relaxed his stance and kicked up the spear that Michael threw down, setting it back up into earring mode he stowed it and scowled at his sisters who’d started laughing at Michael’s annoyance. Isabella spoke up to end the Apollo boy’s confusion, “When Jeremy was little and he first go that one that you were using he was playing around with it, just dicking around like kids do and he fell _onto_ the blade, ask one of the older Apollo kids, it damn near killed him! And he was drugged up to the gills with Nectar and Ambrosia to keep it from getting infected!” _Now_ Jeremy looked somewhere between furious with his sister for ratting him out, and humiliated over nearly getting himself killed. “I was stabbed in the stomach and it was bad.”


	7. Chapter 7

“How did I not know this happened?” Michael froze, setting his weapons down again and then walking over to Jeremy, mother henning as he checked the other boy over, not caring that there were friends and family members watching. “I pretty much all but adopted you after you got to camp, when did...How did I not notice?” Michael frowned, feeling a sense of guilt on his shoulders. He should have been there to help the younger boy, should have at least been at his side while he was sick.

“You were visiting your Moms for a long weekend, Michael it was _years_ ago, I’m fine, promise.” He pulled up the side of his shirt and pointed out the long thin scar that was just barely a shade lighter than his own skin tone. “Your brother, Andrew, who might I add has a stronger healing gift than you and was the Apollo cabin counselor took care of me.” Isabella decided to pipe up “You _were_ completely delirious from pain though Jere-bear, considering the spear head damn near went all the way through you.” and he turned to glare at her, “Isabella, SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!”

“I know Andrew is our best healer, I wasn’t claiming otherwise, but you’re my best friend!” He hugged Jeremy tightly, head in neck, and hands gripping at the orange tank top. “You almost died, and you didn’t fucking tell me?” Michael pulled back, huffing, before hooking a leg behind Jeremy’s and using his weight to pull Jeremy onto the ground, before sitting on his hips. “Izzy, what else happened? Since Dolphin-boy seems to think hiding LIFE THREATENING SECRETS from me is a GREAT idea.”

As Michael dropped him to the ground, Jeremy let out a yelp of surprise, and as Michael sat on him he felt all the air whoosh out of his lungs and he whapped Michael a couple times on the back lightly _not_ wanting to be there for the blowup. Isabella gave the Apollo boy a shark’s smile and leaned back in her seat, “He went into shock because he managed to stab himself in his guts and it caused an infection, which he was delirious from for a full day while Andrew worked on cleaning the injuries out.”  
            Jenna, one of the Hermes’ kids who was best at digging up all the dirt on someone and holding over their head if need be, was sitting next to Isabella chuckled, pulling out a notebook from her back pocket and handing it over to his sister causing Jeremy groaned loudly, hands going to his face. Andrew looked over and went a little gray under his dark tan. Isabella looked at it and smacked the Apollo boy upside the head before reading it aloud, “It says here that Jeremy ended up giving Andrew 5 golden drachma not to say anything to you. Or and I quote, _‘by the gods, I’ll charmspeak you off a bridge and have you take a couple deep breaths underwater, I don’t want Michael to worry!_ ’ Of course everyone knows that’s a completely empty threat coming from Jeremy, from someone else in our cabin it could be a legitimate fear.” She shrugged when a couple people looked at her slightly concerned, “Aphrodite kids’ll do weird things for the sake of the people we care about. A couple of our number have taken the secret of who we love to the grave, in order to protect them.”

Michael glared down _everyone_. He was angry, but not at Jeremy, not at the others. He was angry at himself for not noticing that something was up when he had gotten back from that weekend. He had been having so much fun, spending time with his moms. Jeremy acted fine when he got back too. Granted, they were both little kids, pretty much, and subtleties of lying, both telling one and detecting one, were lost on them at that age. But Michael couldn’t help but feeling like crap. He continued to sit on Jeremy, but he looked to the side, away from everyone else, his shoulders tense. He started feeling the flower petals climbing up his throat again, and he gritted his teeth, swallowing them down. “I still wish you would have told me, Jer…” His voice was quiet, and wavering slightly. He didn’t like how close he had come, unknowingly, to losing the most important person to him. He would have never known what Jeremy would grow up to be like, never know that he hated being tickled, that his favorite video game would come to be Apocalypse of the Damned, or that he didn’t like regular mountain dew. He had come so close to losing his entire _world_ , and no one thought to tell him.  His hands were shaking slightly, and he continued to keep them on Jeremy’s sides, just tracing the scar over and over again, as if he had to convince himself that it was actually healed, and not just a really good glamour.

Jeremy tucked his chin into his chest, eyes welling up slightly as he watched Michael’s demeanor shift into one of self loathing, and then Jeremy got mad, kinda at Michael, mostly at himself though, “NO! You don’t _get_ to beat yourself up for not noticing! I _paid off_ Andrew, and did chores for weeks to keep other kids who saw me carried into the big house so _they_ wouldn’t talk!” Jeremy struggled to sit up under Michael’s weight, but he managed to wrap his arms around the taller boy’s waist and pulled him into an awkward (due to the fact that Michael was sitting on him and Jeremy was arching his back slightly) hug. “Now, if you're going to get mad, you can take that out on me in some hand to hand. I lied to your face, sure it was by omission, but I still lied to you! Let’s go!” Jeremy was egging Michael on and everyone in the stands knew it, Gods he was going to be _so sore_ after this.

Michael just shook his head, sliding off of Jeremy’s legs and out of his arms. He couldn’t fight Jeremy. Not out of genuine anger or intent to hurt. Sparring was only fun when they both wanted to play. It wasn’t meant as a punishment, or as a way to get out anger at _each other_. “No, Jer. I’m not gonna fight you.” He put his sword and shield back into his watch, and grabbed a roll of sport wrap from his back, wrapping up his ankle and dropping trow enough that he could rub some cream onto the bruising that was swelling on his thigh. He tossed both things to Jeremy, before making his way out of the training ring, and the other members of his cabin _knew_ that he was better off alone for a little bit. He rarely left Jeremy to care for his own after practice injuries.  
            Making it to one of his hideouts, Michael sat, back against the trunk of the tree, eyes shut. He knew he didn’t have the right to get mad at Jeremy for being a scared seven-year-old who had probably gotten beat or something for coming out as injured to someone he had respected. And he didn’t have the right to still be mad about something that had happened almost 10 years ago. But he was frustrated that he didn’t know. Wasn’t told. He sighed, fidgeting with the beads on his necklace.

As Michael slide out of his arms, Jeremy felt his face twist into a heartbroken expression, he couldn’t help it and he knew that the others had seen it aimed at Michael back has he retreated _away from Jeremy_. He flopped back into the dirt and covered his face, he was somewhere between furious, with himself for bringing up the whole thing, and ready to cry because the expression on Michael’s face when the Apollo boy brushed his fingers along Jeremy’s scar. After leaving him alone for a few minutes Isabella came down off the bleachers, a contrite expression on her face and all of a sudden Jeremy’s rage picked out a target. He stood, towering over his older sister by a good half foot and screamed loudly, eyes welling up and spilling over, “ _I’ve begged you not to bring that up! WE BOTH KNOW I HAD WORSE GROWING UP! Isabella, BY THE GODS, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” _He hadn’t meant to air his own dirty laundry and he threw the healing salve at one of the pillars in a fit of classic Aphrodite rage. The jar shattered making both of the Aphrodite kids flinch. Jeremy bolted out of the arena towards the beach and the secret cove that you could only get to it if you could hold your breath for a full two minutes. He knew what he said and how he had reacted was going to get back to Michael, but for now, he sprinted past confused campers and threw himself into the water and swam for the cove, at least he could blame the tears on the sea water if he was soaked in it.

Michael sat by the tree til it got good and dark, coughing up rose petals for the majority of the time. A few dryads had poked their heads out, hearing the crying and retching boy, and they looked at each other with looks of sympathy, making soft cooing sounds. One, the one who belonged to the tree Michael had called his for the past years, came and sat next to him, picking up a full bloom, and letting it blossom into a full plant, before setting it in the earth next to her tree. “We could offer you a solution...Make the roses go away.” Michael looked at her, frowning. “How could you possibly make the flowers go away.” One thing that the books he read didn’t cover, were alternative cures for the hanahaki. And none of these tree spirits were Jeremy. “We can take them from you, all of them.” Michael heard the silent ‘but’. “But any feelings towards the person, your love, a friendship, anything, anything towards them will be gone.” Michael shook his head fervently. “Then I don’t want it. I’ll deal with the flowers as long as it means I still get to have Jeremy as my friend.” The spirits all looked at each other again, shaking their heads, except for a younger one in the back. She knew the sentiment that Michael was expressing. The eldest, Michael’s Tree, sighed. “You do know it’s killing you? The roots are tangled and clinging tight.” The boy shrugged. “So be it. But I won’t lose what I have with Jeremy.” He stood, brushing himself off. “Thank you though...” He waved goodbye before making his walk back to camp, feeling exhausted. He just wanted to lie down for a while, make sure that Jeremy was okay. And then hold the other as they fell asleep.

What the son of Apollo got instead was to a vicious rumor that was going around camp, _“Jeremy attacked Isabella, she did nothing and he attacked her.”_ Both the Apollo and Aphrodite cabins that had _been_ there and seen Jeremy’s meltdown after Michael had left and were doing their best to combat the rumors, but Jeremy had vanished into the ocean crying hysterically and Isabella was almost catatonic with the grief that had come off her little brother.  
            Jeremy had been hiding in the underwater cavern for the rest of the day, lying limply on the sandy shore, his sobbing and crying had left him spitting up large flowers onto the sand, eventually, a couple of the nereids had come up to see the Aphrodite child they considered a friend and rubbed his back as he cried and mumbled that he was a horrible person. “I was just trying to _protect_ him!” a few nodded and cooed in their lyrical voices, hushing him so that he wouldn’t cause anymore flowers to come up while he spoke. The blooms were getting almost to the point of _too_ big, it was his grief causing it and he knew he should _try_ and calm down but he was past hysterical. _‘This’_ , he thought with sudden clarity, _‘must be what my mother’s emotions are like, constantly shifting and too powerful for a mere mortal to handle.’_ Was this what his sisters called their Storms, when emotions got too be too much to handle and they started shutting down?

Hearing the rumors, he shook his head, no. No there was no way that was going to get around camp. Michael turned more into a bristling ball of irritation, snapping at and shutting down people who thought they could whisper behind his back about his best friend. And when Jeremy was nowhere to be found, Michael headed towards the beach. Not seeing him right away, he cupped his hands and shouted for him. “Jeremy!!!! Come on! It’s getting dark and late!” He was worried. Swimming back at night was never easy, and he didn’t want Jeremy to hurt himself, not again, and not after this. He wanted a chance to sit down with him and talk some more, now that he was calmer and didn’t have the influence of their cabin mates making things worse. “Jeremy!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naoko: We get a little more insight as to what the "Storm" Jeremy mentioned last chapter is.

Another water spirit came rocketing into the cave calling out to Jeremy, “Your Mate is calling for you! He’s running up and down the beach looking for you!” a younger nereid, a child really, had been weaving his sunflowers into a thick flower crown along with some sea plants and water flowers, she plopped it onto his head and grabbed him by the hand and drug him through the water to the beach before he had time to protest. A few moments later because the Nereid swam far faster than he did, he was being dragged by the hand; stumbling onto the sand; swollen eyes, sore throat, flower crown and all, directly towards Michael who had to be screaming his name at this point.

Michael caught him, and pulled him in close, hugging him tightly, shooting an appreciative glance and smile at the nereids that were loitering in the shallows. “Thank the gods you’re okay. People were saying you flung yourself into the water, and then it was getting dark, and i know currents get worse and more dangerous at night because you can’t see where they are, and you’re not a Poseidon kid, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay, and you weren’t answering, and then this blue chick said something about mates and then went off and now you’re here and you’re okay.” Michael took a deep breath, before just burying his face in Jeremy’s neck. “I’m not mad at you, I promise. I could never be mad at you. I just. I didn’t know how to process the fact that I almost lost my wo-..My best friend, and had no idea it happened.”

Jeremy was a bit hollow eyed, he was shutting down emotionally and he could feel his grasp on the emotions that he _should_ be feeling around Michael just slip away, all he felt right now was exhaustion and guilt. He mumbled a weak sorry and started to move away from Michael. He wasn’t being cruel, but he needed to see his eldest sister, see how long this damned numbness that was fogging his mind up would last in his heart and head. He took a few stumbling steps, flower crown tipping precariously on his head as he started to fall over, and one of the Nereids caught him and pushed him forwards slightly. “Sorry, thank you.” He started walking up the beach and one of his sisters got a good look at him, and sprinted over to the two of them on the beach and grabbed him by the arms, not caring if her clothing was ruined, and carefully walked him along the dunes, he mumbled another sorry, he hadn’t meant to inconvenience Natalie.

Michael’s heart clenched, not really sure what was happening, and once the others cleared the beach, he coughed up another large white rose. The white ones were the scariest to him. They showed all of the damage that Michael was taking, they had the flakes of dried blood showing on their petals, they dislodged old scabs, and they’d come out with fresh red droplets on them. He sat down again, dragging his hand in the sand, and staring at the water. Jeremy had been a shell. Hadn’t even really returned the hug. All Michael wanted to do was to make things better, and it seemed like he pushed the other boy farther away.

After Natalie got him into the cabin, Chloe got a good look at him and took over shooing the red headed girl to go back and get Michael, she stripped Jeremy down to his underwear had him change those quickly as she held a towel up to keep him decent for the younger girls who were asking Chloe, “What’s wrong with Jere-bear?” as he pulled another pair of underwear that matched the one he had been wearing in a dark red. And she went to work on drying Jeremy’s hair, getting a long nightshirt on him and getting him into his bunk.  
            Natalie had caught up to Michael, grabbing the taller boy by the shoulder she turned him to face her forcefully, “Listen to me, and don’t interrupt I have to explain this fast and then grab the rest of my siblings from around camp, we’ve all been looking for Jeremy all day. It’s called the Storm! Some of Aphrodite’s children feel emotions as strongly our mother. Jeremy, bless his soul, is one of the unlucky ones, he _feels so strongly_ that the sheer _shock_ he felt when you walked away from him put him into a downwards spiral and then he _more likely than not_ worked himself up guilt tripping himself, everyone know that you _hate_ liars so he probably felt like shit that he lied to you and then you found out the way you did. He’s completely numb right now and he’s not feeling _anything_. Look Mell, it’s not your fault; this is his first Storm and those are always the hardest, but hey, it could take a day or two for him to get back to normal, give him a little time ok?” the girl didn’t mention that the fact that Jeremy was head over heels for the Apollo boy made the spiral about 10 times worse than it normally would have been. “But you should probably join him in his bunk, help draw him back out of his shell with hugs and affection.”

Michael’s brow furrowed. “You’re, telling me he went into the spiral after I left, but this isn't my fault. And then you say to give him time, but go to him now?” He wasn't angry, just confused. “I don't want to hurt him more, and, call me selfish, but I don't want to get hurt more either.” He rubbed his arm self-consciously. Michael hung his head, “...I really care about him..” It wasn't the subtlest thing that Michael had feelings for Jeremy. Well, to everyone BUT Jeremy it was obvious.

Natalie sighed and rubbed at her forehead, “I was trying to say that it was going to happen soon anyway. He’s been slowing spiraling anyways, we’ve all known about his Hanahaki before he did, and Jeremy won’t tell the poor bastard that he likes him, instead he’s been keeping it all bundled up and feeling guilty. In fact, it was probably a good thing that you sent it off, because _you_ can drag him back out of it.” She let out a little laugh at Michael’s words, “Sweetie, the entire _camp_ knows except Jeremy. He doesn't think he’s worth loving; his mortal mother really fucked him over as a kid ok, he _knows_ he’s worth loving, but he doesn’t see how someone can love him.” the redheaded daughter of Aphrodite shook her head. “I was also saying give it some time for him to get back to himself, but you need to go and bunk with him and hug him and love on him if you want to see him for the next day or two, Chloe’ll be keeping him under lock and key otherwise, if he hears the rumors that are spreading bout him attacking Isabella he could just break down for a while.”

Michael nodded his head, his cheeks burning as Natalie laughed a little. “I've been trying to squash the rumors some too. People tend to not like an angry Apollo kid in their face.” He tried his best to chuckle, but it sounded forced. All he really wanted to do was to go see Jeremy. “I'll go bunk with him though. I might at least be able to help his nightmares..” he walked with the red head back to the Aphrodite cabin, stomach twisting with anxiety.

“That’d be a good idea, also, if you could check out his injuries while you’re in bed with him, he threw the jar of salve at a pillar in a fit of rage when he blow up at Isabella. Honestly _I_ think she deserved it, Jeremy should have been given the chance to ease you into the details of his injury. He was scared, when it happened, that you’d be disappointed in him. Considering the fact that you were one of two people he respected at the time the idea of you being disappointed in him more likely than not terrified him.” she clapped her hand on his shoulder as they walked into the cabin and she pointed out the lump of her little brother in his bunk just staring at the ceiling blankly.

Michael nodded again, before climbing the ladder to get into Jeremy’s bunk, snagging his PJs he'd stashed in the cabin and changing first. “Hey Jer….” He kept his voice low, and his movements slow. “Is it chill if I hang with you tonight?...” No matter how much of a good idea Natalie said this was, he was still going to respect Jeremy’s feelings on it.

Jeremy turned over to look at Michael for a few seconds and then shifted over to give the taller boy room in his bunk. His fingers came up to touch the pride flag that was hanging next to his pillow, the three bright and happy colors were a balm on his soul while Michael slipping into bed behind him was a balm on his heart, he was so _tired_. So he turned around and pressed his face into the Apollo boy’s chest, mumbling a soft “g’night”.

Michael's heart broke a little, but when he felt Jeremy ease into sleep, he kissed the top of his head. “Good night, jer-bear...I love you..” he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, holding him close and rubbing his back as Michael himself started to fall asleep. He hummed a lullaby, not a traditional hymn, but healed some of the cuts on Jer’s hand from the broken glass, and some of the darker bruises that weren't magically inflicted. Once that was done, he flashed a thumbs up to the other Aphrodite children, and fell asleep, clinging to Jeremy like he was his only lifeline.


End file.
